Sun, May 11 2008
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Published March 27, 2008 11:45 pm - TOPEKA, Kan. — A new funeral picketing bill to replace a law invalidated by the Kansas Supreme Court was sent Thursday to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who says she will sign it. Kansas: Senate sends funeral picketing bill to governor The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. — A new funeral picketing bill to replace a law invalidated by the Kansas Supreme Court was sent Thursday to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who says she will sign it. The Senate’s 40-0 vote to agree with the House version passed a day earlier sent the bill to the governor rather than putting it in a committee, as happens with most House bills the Senate receives. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt said he expects the governor will sign the bill soon. “There’s no reason to delay. The House moved quickly and the Senate moved quickly. I expect the governor will move quickly,” said the Independence Republican. After the court’s March 11 ruling invalidating the previous law, legislators moved quickly to get the restrictions back on the books in the home state the Rev. Fred Phelps, whose followers regularly protest services for soldiers throughout the nation. Those protests have been the impetus for laws restricting funeral picketing by 37 states and the federal government. “It is so disheartening that anyone would disrupt the funeral of a fallen service member, or of any Kansan. We must protect the privacy of Kansas families as they mourn the loss of their loved ones and I will sign this bill as soon as I have the opportunity,” the governor said in a statement after the bill passed. Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, long known for a public campaign against homosexuality, began picketing soldiers’ funerals in June 2005 and have protested about 330 funerals in 47 states. Church members say U.S. combat deaths are punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality. “I’m pleased the Legislature has spoken once and for all to give Kansas families protection from hateful protesters as they mourned their loved ones. Our war heroes deserve nothing less,” said Rep. Raj Goyle, the Wichita Democrat who sponsored the bill. The bill is the same as the law enacted last year, except it doesn’t include the “judicial trigger” that blocked the original bill. That trigger said the law couldn’t take effect until the justices or a federal court upheld it. The bill says protesters can’t be within 150 feet of a funeral one hour before, during or two hours after a service ends. It also makes it unlawful to obstruct any public street or sidewalk. Shirley Phelps-Roper, Westboro Baptist’s attorney and a daughter of Fred Phelps, has said the legislation won’t affect the church’s protests because the picketers already stay more than 150 feet away. “Why are they in such a twist?” she said of the legislators. “They’ve got to do what they want to do and we’re going to do what we are required to do.” Phelps-Roper said the church won’t challenge the law once it’s back on the books. “They aren’t interfering with us, so why bother?” she said. 
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