BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM - Steve Six, Attorney General for the state of Kansas, filed an amicus brief June 1 in the case of Snyder v. Phelps along with 49 other attorneys general, including Oregon’s John Kroger. Snyder v. Phelps is a case on the United States Supreme Court Docket that deals with picketing at funerals and will most likely be heard during the October session of 2010.

Kroger’s spokesman, Tony Green, said “There were no reservations. The Attorney General served in the U.S. Marines, and he feels very strongly that people have the right to bury their children and their loved ones… without being harassed, without being targeted. There’s free speech and there’s conduct.”

The petitioner, Albert “Al” Snyder, filed suit against Fred Phelps, Sr. after Phelps and members of the Westboro Baptist Church picketed at a funeral for his son, Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder.

The district court for Maryland, which heard the case, ruled in favor the Snyders, and awarded them $2.9 million in compensatory damages. The decision was subsequently overruled by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“Obviously, it was Westboro’s being based here in Kansas,” said Gavin Young, Six’s spokesperson. “Six felt pretty strongly that he should be leading the effort on this.”

Young said that since submitting the brief, Six had received no calls in complaint from citizens of Kansas, not even from Westboro Baptist Church, Inc. or any of its members.

Young said the states’ interest in this case is making sure that Kansas’s funeral picketing laws, which 45 other states also have, withstand constitutional scrutiny.

“We took great pains to make sure that we crafted a constitutional statute,” he said. “We want to make sure that it remains part of our laws.”

Green said Oregon does not have funeral picketing laws similar to Kansas’s, but that such laws might be under consideration for the approaching legislative session.

“Fortunately, we haven’t actually had this happen,” Green said. “As a general principle, the [Attorney] General is supportive of protecting the dignity of funerals.”

Green added that Kroger finds this principle especially valuable for those who had died at war, saying it was “really part of a broader pro-veteran agenda.”

Josh Wheeler, associate director for the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, said that while states may have constitutionally valid laws regarding funeral picketing, such restrictions were not at issue in the Snyder case.

“It’s far from certain that the court will even deal with the states’ time, place and manner restrictions, because this is about tort liability,” he said.

If the Court did anything in its opinion beyond saying that such restrictions may exist and be constitutionally consistent, he said, the court would be teetering on issuing an advisory opinion, which it cannot do.

“Federal Courts, under the Constitution, are not allowed to decide issues that aren’t presented in the cases that come before them,” he said.

This also means, however, that the Court may rule in favor of the Phelpses, finding them immune from liability in the various tort claims brought against them. However, that would not mean that the funeral picketing laws of various states are invalid.

Young said that when states file amicus briefs on a particular topic, they are frequently circulated among other attorneys general for support, but he called the overwhelming support for this brief “a very rare occurrence.”