LINCOLN, Neb. (ABP) — A federal judge has barred Nebraska from enforcing the state's flag-desecration law on members of a controversial Baptist church who claimed in a lawsuit the statute violated their constitutional right to freedom of speech.
A Westboro Baptist Church member used the flag at a recent protest.
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United States District Judge Richard Kopf ruled Sept. 2 that Margy "Megan" Phelps-Roper and other members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., cannot be prosecuted as long as they "otherwise act peacefully while desecrating the American or Nebraska flag during their religiously motivated protests."
The small, independent congregation, composed mostly of extended family members of founding pastor Fred Phelps, uses the U.S. flag in symbolic speech stating its belief that God is using war to judge America for toleration of sins such as homosexuality.
Phelps-Roper sued state officials, claiming that a law passed in the 1970s making it a misdemeanor to cast "contempt or ridicule" by "mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling" on a flag is unconstitutional.
Nebraska's flag law predated a 1988 Supreme Court decision that declared flag burning a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment. Earlier, Judge Kopf said in a temporary restraining order blocking the arrest of protestors that the law today is "almost certainly unconstitutional."
The church, known for protesting at various venues with placards carrying messages such as "God Hates Fags," has in recent years targeted funerals of fallen soldiers, suggesting that war casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan are the result of God's judgment against America.
In her lawsuit, Phelps-Roper called Nebraska's flag law "a content-based restriction on speech" with a sole purpose "to prohibit the expression of specific viewpoints."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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Nebraska drops flag-mutilation charge against Westboro protester
God hates flags? Judge bars arrest of Westboro flag protester