Eastboro "Church" Appellate Brief

   Our legal research professor assigned an interesting appellate brief topic. As counsel for the Appellant, the party who is appealing the lower court decision, I represent the Eastboro (Everyone's Going to Hell But Us, EGTHBU) Primitive Baptist Church. Unfortunately, this is a real group. You have probably seen them on TV picketing funerals of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq with signs referencing homosexuals and God hating America.

  In this hypothetical case, EGTHBU brought a suit against the Governor of Oklahoma for signing Senate Bill 1020 into law, the Oklahoma Funeral Picketing Act. EGTHBU is asking the court to find the Act facially unconstitutional b/c it abridges their right to Free Speech, and to grant a temporary injunction against the state so they could continue to picket funerals. The lower court granted summary judgment to the Governor, which means the court found that EGTHBU didn't present a genuine issue of fact for the court to decide.

  I researched their website to understand more about their philosophy of picketing soldier’s funerals, just out of curiosity. From what I gathered, they condemn the military for their "don't ask don't tell" policy, claiming that America has been turned over to homosexuals. As a result of this and an incident where their church was bombed, they claim that God, in his "retaliatory wrath" has killed these soldiers via Improvised Explosive Devices.

  Tomorrow, they are protesting a soldier’s funeral in Temple, TX about 3.5 hrs NW of where I live. I'm considering attending. What an interesting application of my legal research assignment that experience would be.

Anti-protest group that rides in on motorcycles to sheild the family from the picketers: The Patriot Guard.