The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who stage anti-gay protests outside military funerals.
The court voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The decision upheld an appeals court ruling that threw out a $5 million judgment to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq who sued church members after they picketed his son's funeral.
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that even though the picketers' message was "painful," it was still protected. The Constitution, he said, protects "even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate."NPR
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Supreme Court Rules for Anti-Gay Funeral Picketers
What this Supreme Court ruling says is ethics and morality are things that can't be legislated. Freedom of speech is crucial to our way of life and the court was right to rule the way it did. But obnoxious, disrespectful and mean-spirited people protesting against gay people at military funerals, or any funeral, is morally and ethically wrong. These kinds of people are just like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, skinheads or any other spewer of hate speech. So long as their weapon is their mouth, only societal pressure can stop them.
