High court rules for military funeral protesters (Westboro Nuts Win 8-1!?)

AP ^ | 03/02/2011 | n/a

[Pyro7480]

The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount attention-getting, anti-gay protests outside military funerals.

[Dengar01]

Well, now the Supreme Court has set precedence with this case...let's see what happens if it does come up - that will be interesting.

Absolutely! One thing that is very true of the US legal system is that they are extremely lazy and instead of making decisions they rely on past decisions.

The Court ruled so in my opinion the tea party protests, pro life rallys, ect.. ALL are protected right now because of this decision.

And every conservative legal team can site this decision if a lib tries to sue us.

[Labyrinthos]

The father will now be liable for the "legal costs" incurred by the WBC in these court actions.

In the American system of jurisprudence, "legal costs" are generally nominal -- a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars depending upon the court system.

[glennaro]

they do have the right to do that but what has kept people from doing that in the past is decency, respect and the fear

I agree. Just because an action is legal doesn't mean there are no societal consequences to those actions.

[Jukeman]

this does not bother me that much - there are other ways of dealing with these people.

[jz638]

The WBC isn’t a church, it’s a moneymaking scam of the worst kind, which makes them even more despicable.

http://kanewj.com/wbc/

[jalisco555]

The father will now be liable for the "legal costs" incurred by the WBC in these court actions.

I think that's the point. I've read elsewhere that this "church" is really a gigantic scam. They deliberately do the most outrageous thing possible to provoke people into attacking them and then they sue. Or they provoke municipalities into denying them rights and then sue them. I've heard they've made a tidy sum through out of court settlements. This is all about money, not some twisted principle.

[Roccus]

I wasn't talking about just "court" costs, but attorney's fees as well. This poor man is about to be hit with a HUGE bill!

[matginzac]

It’s the right decision - BUT...
there’s is nothing that says you can’t have a municipal ordinanace that protects people from this sort of thing.
Case in point: the “cone” around abortion clinics for protesters...
local ordinances could “cone” funerals...and keep these a**holes away.

[concerned about politics]

So long as these evil anti-American, anti-Christian thugs are on public property, I agree with the Supremes.

A silver lining to this cloud -- They just defeated political correctness!!!!

Political correctness was designed to stop people from speaking out against any left wing special interest group. Citizens were terrorized by the threat of hate speech litigation.

The court is saying there's no such thing as hate speech. We can speak out against any left wing special interest group at any time and in any way.
People have been led to believe otherwise. The court just reminded Americans they DO have a choice and a right to their opinions free from left wing retribution.

[Truth29]

"this does not bother me that much - there are other ways of dealing with these people."

Sooner or later this will lead some anguished family member to take private justice against the Westboro demonstrators and that will be another tragedy for the family that was already in mourning.

[ReverendJames]

Ok, so a piece of paper protects them. About as much as a piece of paper protects a woman from her ex-husband/boyfriend/stalker. Some parent or relative might take exception one day to them. Just saying.

[Kaslin]

I just wonder if this means that these evil scums can show up right in front of a funeral home and protest, or do they still have to keep a distance of several hundred feet?

[Roccus]

Exactly!!!

This is a law firm, NOT a church.

[Free Vulcan]

I hate the WBB, but the silver lining is that this is a good precedent that will be valuable down the road.

[Oldpuppymax]

Of course a few large family members of the deceased might make these nuts very unhappy that they showed up!

[libertarian27]

One thing that is very true of the US legal system is that they are extremely lazy and instead of making decisions they rely on past decisions.

There's one thing to be said for laziness, or methodically cautious.

I wish the rest of government worked in the same manner.

The Constitution is the Supreme form of Precedence yet most agencies go wild in writing their own laws of the land.

There is so much that should be squashed as unconstitutional yet how many hours are there in the day for the Supreme Court to decide?

Unfortunately Westboro Church got their 'Pursuit of Happiness' but if they didn't, it would be even more unfortunate for the country as a whole.

[concerned about politics]

but the silver lining is that this is a good precedent that will be valuable down the road.

Yep. There's no such thing as hate speech. Political correctness is now dead.

[Liberty Valance]

http://awesomescreenshot.com/02685esab
Screenshot of Greetings from Anonymous.

[massgopguy]

You are correct. The daughter is their ambulance chaser. It’s a set-up. The best thing to do is ignore them.

[jalisco555]

You are correct. The daughter is their ambulance chaser. It’s a set-up. The best thing to do is ignore them.

This "church" is just a family business, and a lucrative one at that. Ignore them and they'll go away eventually.