Westboro Funeral Pickets Are Protected Speech, High Court Rules

[miskie]

I hate to say it, because I loathe those effers. But the SC had it right.

Indeed. The right to free speech protects not speech we agree with, but that which we don't - These cretins are awful to the point of being inhuman - but we should not stop them from expressing their inhumanity. 

[FreeBorn]

Are we all noticing the trend here? That we on the right find the ruling a bitter pill to swallow, sour apples indeed but we recognize the merit in the ruling nonetheless. Civility is holding sway here, as it should.
If the shoe were on the other foot here, some ruling the left abhorred, we all know the DUmp would go off like Mt St Helens. No holds barred, nothing sacred.

Sure, it sucks to be us right now but not really, if you separate the angst we feel for the message of the Hate Freaks from their right to say it then all is good.

They have to abide by this ruling too and where the leftists push for a "Fairness Doctrine" is concerned is where their party music stops (enter phonograph needle screech here). So it ain't so bad after all, is it?

[Airwolf]

Mark levin had an interesting take on his today. He thinks SCOTUS IS not so right on this. It is what it is, they win BUT they also are not protected from the ramifacations of their speech and right or wrong someday as others have pointed out they will cross the line.

[Ptarmigan]

Mark levin had an interesting take on his today. He thinks SCOTUS IS not so right on this. It is what it is, they win BUT they also are not protected from the ramifacations of their speech and right or wrong someday as others have pointed out they will cross the line.

Free speech like everything else is a two-way street.

[Boudicca]

Mark levin had an interesting take on his today. He thinks SCOTUS IS not so right on this. It is what it is, they win BUT they also are not protected from the ramifacations of their speech and right or wrong someday as others have pointed out they will cross the line.

Hell, Airwolf, they crossed the line years ago.  Hateful, malignant tumors on the American body.  I'm going to side with Justice Alito on this and disagree with this SC ruling FOR those maggots.

[Attero Dominatus]

I hate the WBC but SCOTUS was right. Banning their protests would open the door to banning other forms of speech.

[longview]

I hate the WBC but SCOTUS was right. Banning their protests would open the door to banning other forms of speech.

I agree with this.

Wyoming made it law that protestors at funerals have to stay 100 yards from the procession, main parking area, and venue.  Made me laugh.  The WBC is the only group I know of that protests at funerals.  So they have to stay a football field length away from anything connected to the funeral.  It didn't take the legislators long to throw that law together and get it passed.  Very little comittee work and no debate.  Just reduce the likelihood of getting attention away.

[docstew]

I agree with this.

Wyoming made it law that protestors at funerals have to stay 100 yards from the procession, main parking area, and venue.  Made me laugh.  The WBC is the only group I know of that protests at funerals.  So they have to stay a football field length away from anything connected to the funeral.  It didn't take the legislators long to throw that law together and get it passed.  Very little comittee work and no debate.  Just reduce the likelihood of getting attention away.

Every state should pass a law like that.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Since all legal redress against them has apparently been foreclosed, that only leaves extra-legal means.  One of these days in the foreseeable future, some bereaved relative who is also a terminal cancer patient or otherwise has noting to lose is going to unleash Hell on their asses at one of these things.

[Boudicca]

Every state should pass a law like that.

Arizona has, in response to Phelps the Evil's plans to come picket 9-year old Christina Taylor's funeral.

http://patterico.com/2011/01/11/arizona-passes-law-against-picketing-at-funerals/

we already know the unions are picking up the tab for the cowardly lyin' Dem senators from WI so they can remain in Oz, but who's picking up the tab for the Westboro hate group?  Hard to believe anyone would donate to their cause.

[docstew]

Arizona has, in response to Phelps the Evil's plans to come picket 9-year old Christina Taylor's funeral.

http://patterico.com/2011/01/11/arizona-passes-law-against-picketing-at-funerals/

we already know the unions are picking up the tab for the cowardly lyin' Dem senators from WI so they can remain in Oz, but who's picking up the tab for the Westboro hate group?  Hard to believe anyone would donate to their cause.

People don't donate, the WBC gets operational funds from the lawsuits they file when greiving families (inevitably) yell at or otherwise hurt their poor widdle feewings.  It's all one big family, and a large portion of them are lawyers.

[AllosaursRus]

People don't donate, the WBC gets operational funds from the lawsuits they file when greiving families (inevitably) yell at or otherwise hurt their poor widdle feewings.  It's all one big family, and a large portion of them are lawyers.

Yep, they get their money by filling frivolous law suits. If we ever get tort reform, these asshats may find they're goin' to run out of money for their hate speech!

[Jason]

Yep....and they're reproducing.

Inbreeding.  Normal people don't reproduce with ****s like them.

[Ptarmigan]

People don't donate, the WBC gets operational funds from the lawsuits they file when greiving families (inevitably) yell at or otherwise hurt their poor widdle feewings.  It's all one big family, and a large portion of them are lawyers.

That should be grounds for disbarrment right there.

[Eupher]

That should be grounds for disbarrment right there.

Fred Phelps IS a disbarred attorney - which is why he's got his "family" pressing the legal attacks.

He was suspended from the practice of law for two years beginning in 1969, on three counts of professional misconduct. He was disbarred in 1979 for showing "little regard for the ethics of his profession", after several of his court filings seemed to be increasingly at odds with the facts of the assorted matters. The family's law firm continues to operate. Of Phelps' children, all adults, at least 11 are lawyers, and several work for the family firm.

Link

That's why any pretext or claim that Phelps has in a religious sense is total bullshit. He's a money whore -- pure and simple.

[Boudicca]

People don't donate, the WBC gets operational funds from the lawsuits they file when greiving families (inevitably) yell at or otherwise hurt their poor widdle feewings.  It's all one big family, and a large portion of them are lawyers.

My God, is that what we've come to in the USA?
I thought it was a horrible injustice when Mr. Barnett was ordered to pay restitution to some ****ing illegal aliens traipsing across his ranch, but this is even worse.
Personally, I think this country has veered way off track and would shame the Founders very much.

[MP_Sarge]

[Ptarmigan]

Methinks Fred Phelps is a closeted homosexual. 

[MP_Sarge]

There are a handful of studies that would suggest that.

[Ptarmigan]

There are a handful of studies that would suggest that.

I recall that the Menninger Foundation suggested that Phelps is a closeted homosexual and raging psychopath.

[MP_Sarge]

Generally, the more rage and violence expressed towards LGBT people, the more likely someone is to have an arousal response to gay porn.

[Ptarmigan]

Generally, the more rage and violence expressed towards LGBT people, the more likely someone is to have an arousal response to gay porn.

I bet he does have gay porn stash somewhere. Another whackjob besides Fred Phelps is Michael Crook. He is like Phelps minus the fact he is an Atheist. He is also anti-military and claims and hates gays.

[Bertram]

"Mass. to continue to enforce funeral protest rules

Attorney General Martha Coakley says Massachusetts will continue to enforce state law that keeps protesters at least 500 feet from a funeral despite last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the right of a Kansas church group to picket military funerals.

Coakley told The Boston Globe she will advise police to continue to enforce a 500-foot buffer zone around funerals to prevent disruptions. She says police have discretion in maintaining order and that the Massachusetts law strikes a balance between protesters’ free speech and the rights of military families.

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., exercised their right to free speech when they picketed the Maryland funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq and carrying inflammatory messages such as, "Thank God for Dead Soldiers.""


http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1321431

[korporal_krakrs]

I bet he does have gay porn stash somewhere. Another whackjob besides Fred Phelps is Michael Crook. He is like Phelps minus the fact he is an Atheist. He is also anti-military and claims and hates gays.

On the other hand Michael Phelps just likes to smoke a little weed now and again.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I suppose you're also free to stand outside a family reunion for a black family and scream the n-word.

Yes, you would be free to do that.

Though I suppose I might imagine the consequences of such actions.