161902P.pdf   08/11/2017  Shirley Phelps-Roper  v.  Pete Ricketts
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  16-1902
   U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska - Lincoln   
   [PUBLISHED] [Shepherd, Author, with Wollman and Gruender, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Civil rights. For the court's earlier decision in the matter, 
   See Phelps-Roper v. Troutman, 662 F.3d 485 (8th Cir. 2011), vacated on 
   reh'g, 705 F.3d 845 (8th Cir. 2012). In action by the members of the 
   Westboro Baptist Church challenging the Nebraska Funeral Picketing Law 
   which imposed time, place and manner restrictions on protests at 
   cemeteries, funeral homes and churches, the district court did not err in 
   upholding the law; the statute is content neutral, narrowly tailored to 
   serve a significant government interest and allows ample alternative 
   channels for communication; as a result, plaintiffs' facial challenge to 
   the statute is rejected; plaintiffs' as-applied challenge was also 
   properly rejected as there was no evidence of unlawful favoritism in 
   application of the law, plaintiffs were permitted to speak at the October 
   2011 picket in question, and the law did not favor other viewpoints over 
   plaintiffs'; there was no evidence police officers unconstitutionally 
   restricted plaintiffs picketing to areas well beyond the statute's 
   500-foot buffer zone; nor did the police unconstitutionally disfavor 
   plaintiffs' viewpoint or allow others to unlawfully block plaintiffs' 
   picket by preferentially allowing the other protestors to break the law.