Supreme Court rules to protect Westboro Baptist Church’s freedom to protest
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church protest this week outside a Hyattsville, Maryland, school.
Washington (CNN)– A Kansas church known for its angry, anti-gay protests at funerals of U.S. troops won an appeal Wednesday at the Supreme Court in a case testing the competing constitutional rights of free speech and privacy.
In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said that members of Westboro Baptist Church had a right to promote what they call a broad-based message on public matters such as wars. The father of a fallen Marine had sued the small church, saying those protests amounted to targeted harassment and an intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
At issue was a delicate test between the privacy rights of grieving families and the free speech rights of demonstrators, however disturbing and provocative their message. Several states have attempted to impose specific limits on when and where the church members can protest.
The church, led by pastor Fred Phelps, believes God is punishing the United States for “the sin of homosexuality” through events including soldiers’ deaths. Members have traveled the country shouting at grieving families at funerals and displaying such signs as “Thank God for dead soldiers,” “God blew up the troops” and “AIDS cures fags.”
Read more here
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[...] a case last year (read here), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Westboro’s activity as protected by the 1st [...]
Oh go and read Sarah Palin’s book again. You started your comment with “liberals” and pigeon holed me into a group of nutbags. Notice I didn’t say all Christians are douchebags? So why would you assume all liberals are? Oh, cause you are a douchebag. Or was that too low brow?
Sticks & Stones my friend
You can’t refute so you resort to name calling. How telling
Yup. And therefore I can also do the following. You AND Fred Phelps are douchebags.
Liberals only have themselves to blame for the WBC. You wanted the freedom to disrupt the WTO conference in Seattle, close down city streets in LA for protests, have Cindy Sheehan camp out on GWB’s doorstep and take over the capitol building in Madison. You don’t get the right to take those actions unless you grant the same rights to these nuts as well.
“Self government won’t work without self discipline”
I so agree with you – they are out of their minds – and what type church only has one issue? These people need to stay away.
I think they ought to be sent to God and let Him sort it out. They have to be completely out of their minds to go to funerals. I can‘t believe that they don’t have anything better to do. What a bunch of losers.