Update 1:44 p.m.
A federal judge has struck down the Michigan law that bars protests at funerals.
Detroit U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington says the law violates free speech rights and is too vague too enforce.
Lewis and Jean Lowden challenged the law after they were stopped and removed from a funeral procession by police.
They had signs critical of President George W. Bush taped to their car windows.
They were on their way to the burial of a family friend who died in Iraq.
Dan Korobkin is the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented the Lowdens. He says it is still illegal to disrupt a funeral.
"But what’s not against the law is to express your own views on a public street and risk being arrested or penalized for that just because your views don’t accord with the views of other people – either at the funeral or, even in this case, the police officers who were directing traffic," said Korobkin.
The law was passed largely to stop the Westboro Baptist Church from protesting at the funerals of fallen service members. Members of the church show up outside military funerals with signs that say the deaths were caused by America’s tolerance of homosexuality.
10:55 a.m.
This just came in from MPRN's Rick Pluta:
A federal judge has struck down the state law barring protests at military funerals.
The Michigan law was passed in 2006 to keep members of the Westboro Baptist Church from demonstrating at military funerals. More than 40 states passed similar legislation barring the practice, according to the First Amendment Center.
Last March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Westboro protesters in the "Snyder v. Phelps" case.
Last month, a similar state law in Missouri was found to be unconstitutional by a federal judge.
We'll have more from Rick Pluta later today.
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