Supreme Court rules for anti-gay church over military funeral protests

[Eoin247]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/02/sco...ex.html?hpt=C1

Here's the first half of the article:

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 ****."

Westboro members appeared outside the 2006 funeral for Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Maryland, outside Baltimore.
Snyder's family sued the church in 2007, alleging invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy. A jury awarded the family $2.9 million in compensatory damages, plus $8 million in punitive damages, which were later reduced to $5 million.

The church appealed the case in 2008 to a federal appeals court, which reversed the judgments a year later, siding with the church's allegations that its First Amendment rights were violated.
Albert Snyder, Matthew's father, said his son was not gay and the protesters should not have been at the funeral.

"I was just shocked that any individual could do this to another human being," Snyder told CNN. "I mean, it was inhuman."

Church members said their broader message was aimed at the unspecified actions of the military and those who serve in it. They believe U.S. soldiers deserve to die because they fight for a country that tolerates homosexuality.

I'm for free speech and all. In fact i'm probably more in favour of it than most people. However i think that this is taking it too far. At a funeral families should be allowed to grieve in peace and not have these protesters disrupt the funeral and insult the dead in question.

Thoughts on this?

[GommeInc]

I'm all for free speech when the people speaking it know what they're talking about. God should hate these people, Pastor Phelps is a false prophet using God's name in vain. I'd love to get the lot of them, tied up together and slap them until their faces turn red, or my hand is ground down to the bone - which ever comes first They're such incredibly annoying individuals who do not know what they are talking about, and when confronted they come up with a load of mumble jumbled answers that change every 5 seconds. They're deluded buggars, the lot of them :/

[Inseriousity.]

Generally, I'm all for religion on a social level - spiritually I'm not a fan of it but socially yeah it's mostly good. If used properly, it can promote social cohesion, tolerance blah blah blah but it's incidents like this one, 9/11 etc that makes me sick

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/02/sco...ex.html?hpt=C1

I'm for free speech and all. In fact i'm probably more in favour of it than most people. However i think that this is taking it too far. At a funeral families should be allowed to grieve in peace and not have these protesters disrupt the funeral and insult the dead in question.

Thoughts on this?

Then you don't believe in free speech.

This is distasteful, but if protestors want to peacefully demonstrate on public land then like it or not, in a free country they have that right.

[Conservative,]

Free speech Im all for, as Eoin said, I'm probably up with him because I pretty much let free speech roll (I indeed use it against my teachers when they tell me to be quiet lol) but insulting a dead person and their family - who fought for your safety, is taking it WAY over the line and I find it disgusting.

Rights are there to help us lead comfortable lives, but if they're abused they make everyone's lives worse.

[Eoin247]

Then you don't believe in free speech.

This is distasteful, but if protestors want to peacefully demonstrate on public land then like it or not, in a free country they have that right.

Ok then let me reword that. I believe in free speech to a very large extent. However do you really think that this sort of thing, at a funeral for crying out loud, should be tolerated?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Can we all please stop saying 'I believe in free speech BUT...' because free speech is absolute or it is not free speech, free speech is about accepting that things may be said that you may find disgusting, vile and distasteful. If you believe in free speech then you believe in exactly that, free speech.

I don't support what they are doing, I find it disgusting at a funeral - but I accept that in a free country there are opinions I may not like. My opinion was the exact same concerning the poppy burning by a group of muslims.

[Conservative,]

Can we all please stop saying 'I believe in free speech BUT...' because free speech is absolute or it is not free speech, free speech is about accepting that things may be said that you may find disgusting, vile and distasteful. If you believe in free speech then you believe in exactly that, free speech.

I don't support what they are doing, I find it disgusting at a funeral - but I accept that in a free country there are opinions I may not like. My opinion was the exact same concerning the poppy burning by a group of muslims.

Fair enough I see your point. I'm not saying it should be banned I'm just saying in my opinion free speech is abused too much sometimes.

This is one of those times. I find it disgusting however I'm not saying it should be banned or they should be arrested, I just think they need to learn some respect.

[Jordan1]

The daughter of the leader said everyone should die. This church is messed up :/

[Eoin247]

Can we all please stop saying 'I believe in free speech BUT...' because free speech is absolute or it is not free speech, free speech is about accepting that things may be said that you may find disgusting, vile and distasteful. If you believe in free speech then you believe in exactly that, free speech.

I don't support what they are doing, I find it disgusting at a funeral - but I accept that in a free country there are opinions I may not like. My opinion was the exact same concerning the poppy burning by a group of muslims.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have their opinions. But their are many other places they could protest without causing so much suffering to families. This in my opinion goes further than free speech to something else.