Whitney Houston's Funeral To Be Picketed By Westboro Baptist Church

[LibertyLover]

44. Just some more information for you on WBC

Old Fred was a lawyer, but was disbarred in 1979. A number of his children went to law school and have their own law firm, Phelps Chartered. I know that in the 1990s they used Phelps Chartered to sue the city of Topeka several times. From one suit they received $16,500 and are pursuing another one for $100,000. WBC claims that its money comes from donations from the congregation, but that's a bit disengenuious as most of the congregation are Phelps' family. Phelps Chartered can be engaged by members of the public for legal work, so part of the funding for WBC, as funneled through the congregation's gifts, comes from regular legal activities of the attorneys at Phelps Chartered, but WBC does indeed pursue litigation against individuals and institutions that have, shall we say, annoyed them. IIRC, WBC counter-sued the Maryland man whose son's funeral the group protested. He sued them and won at the state level but WBC appealed and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which found for WBC. It was one of those court cases that you knew had to be decided the way it was, but you really didn't want it to be.