News Nearby: Creve Coeur's New Funeral Protest Law Targets Westboro Baptist

Without fanfare Monday, Creve Coeur City Council members gave final passage to an ordinance to ban protests knowingly taking place within 300 feet of "any residence, cemetery, funeral home, church, synagogue, or other establishment or location during or within one (1) hour before or one (1) hour after any actual funeral or burial service at that place." 

Ward 2 Councilwoman Tara Nealey proposed the ordinance, after an appeals court upheld a similar law on the books in Manchester.

The bill chiefly targets protests by members of the Westboro (KS) Baptist Church, a church which has gained notoriety for protests of military funerals and school events, as signs of its stance against homosexuality.

Nealey has previously that the bill is not meant to replace the community-oriented organized counter-protests which spring up in many cases when word of a possible Westboro presence surfaces.