Ruling shouldn’t affect N.D. law

BISMARCK (AP) — Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says he doesn’t think a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding protests at military funerals will have any effect on North Dakota’s law keeping Westboro Baptist Church members at least 300 feet away from such services.

The Kansas-based fundamentalist church is known for outrageous anti-gay protests at military funerals. Supreme Court justices say the protests are protected free speech.

Stenehjem told North Dakota Public Radio that he thinks the justices made it clear in their ruling that they were not addressing laws that many states such as North Dakota have restricting protests within a specified distance of the funeral services.

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