Free speech zones?
Ridiculous.
Free speech should be available everywhere and at any time.
Ir is propriety that should make people respect funerals and allow the honored dead to be buried in peace.
“Free speech should be available everywhere and at any time.”
There is also responsible free speech. What happened to the concept of “can’t yell ‘fire’ in a movie theater”?
Public office holders get them. Protests are held in one area, press conferences in another. Since “free speech zones” are not afforded funerals, and propriety and decency does not seem to stop Westboro Baptist, I see no reason why it should stop the attendants at the funerals that they are picketing, either. Kick ‘em in the ass. Chase them away. Done and done.
“Free speech should be available everywhere and at any time.”
Anyone can exercise “free speech” from your front yard? From your porch? From inside your dwelling? Anytime they want to?
Alito, alone, got it right. Free speech IS available to the reprehensible folks at Westboro. They can publish all they want on the internet. There is no censorship of their ridiculous message. They have many open venues to spew their hate. There are times when the right of a grieving family to bury their dead trumps the rights of the Westboro folks. If the eight idiots looked at the clear intent of the framers - to permit open criticism of the government - they would not have made this grievous mistake. Wish I remembered who said, “sometimes the law is an ass.”