While religious speech has historically been protected, one point completely overlooked in the WBC argument is that the majority of funerals are also a protected act of religious expression.
Why should WBC’s right to religious speech trump the religious speech rights of funeral attendees?
Why should WBC’s right to expression be more protected then those of the funeral party?
Does Rev. Phelp’s have more rights as “clergy” then a member of the clergy asked to officiate at a funeral?
The court should rule that WBC has a right to protest as long as their activities in no way impede upon the ability of funeral attendees to enter the cemetery, to hold their chosen services in peace and leave the cemetery unimpeded by WBC members. To not do so says WBC has more rights of religious expression then other Americans; it would also give WBC a higher right of assembly and protest then is afforded to the privacy and assembly rights of any other group.
Pollster1 pretty much said it all in post #11. WBC stays just this side of legal for the most part.
Their 1st Amendment rights don’t trump those of the families having funerals. But the rights of those families don’t trump the rights of the WBC members, either. And as long as they don’t impede traffic, don’t trespass, or make themselves so loud that the funeral can’t be held, they’re within their rights.
Basic human decency dictates that what they are doing is entirely wrong. I think what they are doing is wrong, as wrong as anything else I can think of. The pain that they are inflicting on innocent, grieving people is nothing short of vile.
Morally justified and legally justified are two different things, though. I cannot morally justify what they do and wouldn’t ever try. Putting up with their verbal garbage so that the rest of us aren’t censored is a good thing, though.
We don’t have to look far in our world to see people who will do anything, including imprisonment and violence, to suppress the religious speech of others. This is the price we pay to avoid that, and it has never been more important than now.
We call it “free speech”, but that isn’t entirely true. The price for being able to say what we want, is putting up with this kind of verbal sewage.