WBC won a $200,000 settlement in the 1990s against Topeka after the city tried to stop the group from protesting.
Since then, numerous states have passed laws restricting the proximity of protesters to funerals. In 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, which restricts any protests within 300 feet of a cemetery managed by the National Cemetery Administration.
In October, the US Supreme Court heard the case of Snyder v. Westboro Baptist Church to determine whether a federal appeals court acted appropriately by overturning a $5 million award that Snyder won from the WBC after it picketed the funeral of his son, Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.
"Snyder had one (and only one) opportunity to bury his son and that occasion has been tarnished forever,” wrote Mr. Snyder’s lawyer in his petition to the Supreme Court. “Snyder deserved better. Matthew deserved better. A civilized society deserved better.”
Westboro representative Margie Phelps, in legal filings responded: “The Constitution is imperiled if a subjective claim of outrage can be used to penalize into silence speech that does not make false statements of fact, uttered in public arenas on public issues.”
The appeals court which overturned the verdict wrote that “It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have often been forged in controversies involving not very nice people," in its ruling.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case next year.
