Why was phelps disbarred

One such threat, reported in , is included in the release, consisting of a crudely handwritten note:. In , Phelps filed a complaint with the Civil Rights Unit of the FBI, claiming he had been a victim of religious discrimination and that gunshots had been fired at the Westborough Baptist Church. However, he made such specific demands of the FBI regarding the conditions of the interview on the subject that the case was not pursued.

The church has repeatedly declined to comment. But of course to me you were always my Gramps. Phelps and his church faced a barrage of lawsuits and legal actions by those who attempted to stop their pickets. Their right to continue protesting was, however, ultimately upheld by the highest court of the nation they said was damned. This article is more than 7 years old. But Fred was taking those cases.

Phelps was so successful that he became the first lawyer blacks would call when they thought they were being discriminated against, says the NAACP's Scott. Douglas, the Topeka civil rights activist and former fire chief, says Phelps was such a "brilliant attorney" that he made enemies. I think if they discriminated against Martians, he would have done those cases. He could make money. Phelps' daughter says her father took up civil rights cases because of his upbringing.

Phelps was born in the Deep South during segregation. Having people hate them is nothing new for Phelps and his family, she says. People shot out their windows and threatened her father because he stood up for blacks in Kansas. After her father delivered an editorial on local television one night bemoaning white racism, she says, the phone rang.

That's not the first time nor the last time I heard that. Phelps was disbarred in by the Kansas Supreme Court after he became the subject of a complaint alleging witness badgering. The court wrote: "The seriousness of the present case coupled with his previous record leads this court to the conclusion that respondent has little regard for the ethics of his profession.

Phelps-Roper contends her father was disbarred in Kansas state court for standing up for blacks. They could hardly bring themselves to be civil because we won those verdicts. It has earned him so much notoriety that he is internationally known.

Phelps' anti-gay pickets continue even though his case is pending before the U. The family plans to visit Atlanta, Georgia, starting Wednesday for two days of protests, including one at a Jewish community center and a playhouse staging a production in honor of Shepard, the slain gay college student. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist organizations, has classified Phelps' church as a hate group.

It calls Phelps America's most notorious anti-gay activist. Mark Potok, a center spokesman, says Phelps uses anti-Semitic language in the fliers and tracts he dispatches from his church today. Nate Phelps, the estranged son, says his father held racist attitudes even during his work as a civil rights attorney. He says his father didn't believe blacks were equal to whites, and often insulted blacks out of earshot.

But Phelps-Roper, Nathan's sister, says their father was no racist. She says that Potok doesn't know her father.