High Court Rules in Favor of Frustrating Free Speech
About a year ago, I reported on the Westboro Baptist Church and their protest of a Drake University forum on campus. If you'll recall, Westboro is the outfit that protests at military funerals claiming that military deaths are God's response to the US Government sanctioning homosexuality. At the time of my first entry, the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to hear a case where a father of a fallen soldier sued Westboro for invasion of privacy, and Westboro argued for protection under the First Amendment
The Supreme Court issued its 8-1 ruling in favor of Westboro, finding that the protestors’ speech “cannot be restricted simply because it is upsetting or arouses contempt.” Chief Justice Roberts noted that it is the speech that we hate the most that oftentimes requires the greatest protection.
The free speech of the funeral is abridged by the phelps, if you understand the anticipation in going to the funeral, and the digesting of the words and expressions of the funeral on the way out, critical to enjoying the speech of the funeral on the way out.
Clearly we want free speech on public issues, but they do not need to abridge the speech of the funeral, by inhibiting the enjoyment and anticipation of the words on the way in and the way out.
http://vicfedorov.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/snyder-v-phelps-protecting-funeral-rights-and-rites/