The St. Francois County sheriff has agreed not to enforce a state funeral protest law and also not to enforce a state flag desecration law. He had threatened to do so if members of the Westboro Baptist Church showed up at a military funeral. Westboro member Shirley Smith-Phelps had taken the sheriff to court on the issue.
Missouri’s funeral protest law was declared unconstitutional earlier this year. The flag desecration law has not been enforced since a similar Texas law was ruled unconstitutional more than twenty years ago.
