Trained as a lawyer, Fred Phelps, the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, was disbarred in 1979 by the Kansas Supreme Court, which asserted that he had “little regard for the ethics of his profession.” The formal complaint against Phelps charged that he misrepresented the truth in a motion for a new trial in a case he had brought, and that he held the defendant in the case up to “unnecessary public ridicule for which there is no basis in fact.” Following his disbarment from Kansas State courts, Phelps continued to practice law in Federal courts. In 1985, nine Federal court judges filed a disciplinary complaint charging him and six of his family members, all attorneys, with making false accusations against them. The Phelps family fought the complaint but lost and, in 1989, Fred Phelps agreed to not practice law in Federal court in exchange for the Federal judges allowing the other members of his family to continue practicing in Federal court.

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