US Supreme Court declines to review Nebraska law limiting funeral protests News
US Supreme Court declines to review Nebraska law limiting funeral protests

The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday declined to rule [order list, PDF] on a Nebraska law which limits protesting around funerals.

The Nebraska Funeral Picketing Law [text], which was enacted in 2006, originally prohibited [Omaha World-Herald report] protests within 300 feet of a cemetery, mortuary, or church if it occurs one hour prior or two hours after a funeral. The law was amended in 2011 to extend the restricted area to 500 feet.

The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, known for its protest of funerals of soldiers claiming that US soldiers killed in combat are God’s retribution for American tolerance of homosexuality, originally challenged [opinion, PDF] the law in 2010. In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled [opinion] that a church’s right to picket at a private funeral was constitutionally protected [JURIST report] by the First Amendment [text]. However, in August the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] that the Nebraska law provided a constitutionally appropriate balance between the competing interests of law-abiding speakers and unwilling listeners who, as mourners, have a privacy right that should not be intruded upon during the grieving period.

In 2012, that same appeals court ruled [JURIST report] on a similar law in Missouri, holding that it was a legitimate restriction on the First Amendment.