DNT's agree with Lourey. They are trieing to keep her bid for Goveernor a float.

Well it seems as if the Duluth News Tribune is one of the few that agree with Lourey on ban against funeral protest.


Lourey's vote against ban on pickets is a vote for freedom
Mother carries on her son's battle with lone opposition to protest ban
While few lawmakers seem to get it, there is one mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who understands that no matter how repulsive and vile pickets are at the funerals of servicemen, the protesters' First Amendment rights must be assured.

She along with the paper need to relize this was not a ban on protest per say. What the bill does is say you need to be so far away. This is a good and if no one see's you protesting even better.

You may ask what would be the point of protesting then. This is something you would have to ask these sick groups that feel the need to protest at funerals.


It's not just any mother. State Sen. Becky Lourey, a Democrat from Kerrick who's running for governor this year, cast the lone vote in opposition to a Minnesota Senate bill to ban protests and picketing at funerals and memorial services. Her son, 40-year-old Army Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Lourey, was killed in May when his helicopter was shot down in Iraq.
"He always said that freedom of speech, our Bill of Rights, our way of life -- that's what he wanted to protect," Lourey told the St. Paul Pioneer Press after last week's 58-1 vote.
Her words echoed those repeated in this space ever since Minnesota, Wisconsin and at least 12 other states began to adopt or consider laws outlawing funeral protests earlier this year. The measures are in response to the Rev. Fred Phelps and followers of his Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. The church, which has no affiliation to any larger denomination, protests military funerals because, Phelps and his followers say, God is killing American troops as punishment for the nation's acceptance of homosexuality.

This is not a matter for free speech, they still have every right to there free speech and there also have there right to protest. They are just being asked ( or told by law) that they be respectful and stay a way from the grieving family member and friends.


The pickets have taken place in Anoka, Minn., Hudson, Wis., Princeton, Minn., and elsewhere. A threatened protest this month at the Superior High School funeral of a U.S. Marine never materialized. Phelps' followers said they stayed away because authorities threatened arrest. In fact, everyone from the Wisconsin attorney general on down indeed did make that promise, which would have enforced existing disorderly conduct laws a day before Wisconsin's protest ban was scheduled to take effect.


Sen. Paul Koering, a Republican from Fort Ripley, is correct that Minnesota must send "a message to these people that their actions are not welcome at funerals." However, infringing on the First Amendment right of free speech is not the way to send that message. Court injunctions and laws already in place, including disorderly conduct laws, are proven effective in keeping the despicable protests at bay. It certainly worked in Superior.


Lourey said she knew her vote could "cause pain to other mothers." Politically speaking, it could cost her the DFL nomination, or if she does prevail in that arena, votes in the general election in November. We'll refrain from playing political handicappers any more than we will offer any gubernatorial endorsement at this early date. But for voting her conscience and, more importantly, making an effort to protect the rights of us all, she deserves commendation.