Kansas Supreme Court To Consider Judicial Trigger In Funeral Picketing Law

Last March, following the lead of 32 other states, the Kansas legislature enacted a law (SB 244) banning funeral protests. The laws are aimed at the offensive anti-gay picketing of veterans' funerals by a Topeka-based church. (See prior posting.) Unlike other states, however, the Kansas law contains a "judicial trigger". It does not take effect until the state Supreme Court or a federal court rules that it is constitutional. In May the Kansas Attorney General filed suit in the Kansas Supreme Court to obtain a ruling on the law's constitutionality. Earlier this week, the Kansas Supreme court scheduled a hearing in the case, but only on whether the judicial trigger itself is constitutional, and if it is not, on whether it can be severed from the remainder of the statute. (Order in State ex rel. Morrison, Attorney General v. Kathleen Sebelius, Governor, (KS Sup. Ct., t. 3, 2007). The AP reported on the Court's action in the case.