TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court effectively ended a law banning picketing at funerals, ruling Tuesday that it was unconstitutional for legislators to require a court to uphold the law before it could be enforced.
That "judicial trigger" was intended to prevent the Westboro Baptist Church from collecting damages from the state after a successful appeal of the law.
The law was passed in response to the sect's picketing of military funerals; the Rev. Fred Phelps and his followers claim U.S. combat deaths are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
Ruling on a law before it can be enforced usurps power from the Legislature, Justice Marla J. Luckert wrote in the unanimous ruling.
"Courts do not have jurisdiction over purely hypothetical questions associated with nonexistent issues," she wrote.
The court did not address the merits of the 2007 law, which bars protesters from being 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.
The law also allows families to sue if they feel protesters defamed the dead. That single provision survives after the court's ruling.
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