April 14, 2007

Troubling Order In Westboro Baptist Church Case

I despise Fred Phelps with a passion -- few individuals in America today are more despicable than the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, a tiny hate cult from Kansas. But as rancid as this crew of inbred cretins are, the First Amendment still applies to them -- which is why this decision by a federal judge in Baltimore really offends me, even more than the hate-filled anti-American actions that led to the decision.

A federal judge in Baltimore is ordering Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church to pay more than $3,000 in costs related to the funeral of a Marine the group picketed.

Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania, is suing because church
members demonstrated at the funeral of his son, Lance Corporal
Matthew Snyder. Church members also posted pictures of the protest
on their Web site.

Corporal Snyder was killed in Iraq in March.

The lawsuit was filed in June. It says church members violated
the family's right to privacy and defamed the Marine and his family
at the funeral and on the church's Web site.

Court documents say the church has 30 days to make the payment
to Snyder.

I respectfully disagree -- and would argue that the political and religious speech these lowlifes engaged are fully protected by the First Amendment -- and that laws, lawsuits, and other efforts to prevent these hell-bound hatemongers from speaking are much more anti-American than the protests of the Phelps klan.

Posted by: Greg at 12:56 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 251 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Personally, I think you're an idiot. But that's besides the point. I think you're perfectly entitled to say what you're saying now, and that I 'm perfectly entitled to call you an idiot, both because of the First Amendment. However, with the case of the WBC, they should have received this fine, and in my opinion, been fined more.

Why did Imus get fired for his comments about Women's basketball? First Amendment, right? No, he screwed up. He's a professional, and he made a very unprofessional comment. If you're family died, how exactly would you perceive this? "They're assholes, but I completely respect their right to be complete assholes"? No, it's harassment, taken to the extreme.

There has to be restitution for their actions, and with that said, how do you propose that restitution be accomplished? They're pushing the bounds of the First Amendment as it is, and the fact is, it is what's protecting them. However, they overstep their bounds when they protest at funerals. They can protest with a press release, with a sermon at their church, anywhere they want, EXCEPT in front of the the families themselves as they mourn the loss of their son, brother, or father. That's pretty damned close to being the lowest form of harassment thus far conceived, the very definition of kicking them while their down.

They also are planning to protest at the funerals for the Virginia Tech shootings. Is that right? Is that truly legal? First Amendment my ass. They'd use the Constitution for toilet paper.

Posted by: No at Tue Apr 17 01:03:13 2007 (pvloB)

2 Sorry to see that you don't believe in the First Amendment, No.

And as for the disgusting plans to protest at the Tech funerals, I view that action as entirely within the bounds of the First Amendment -- entirely outside the bounds of any sort of Christian morality. But then again, I've been saying that for over two decades, since they started protesting at the funerals of dead gays with AIDS.

Private individuals and businesses can and should punish speech that crosses the line of decency -- government cannot and must not if it is to retain legitimacy under our Constitution.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue Apr 17 12:00:13 2007 (MAd+s)

3 Here is the number for the Westboro Baptist Church : (785) 273-0325
call them and let them know how much you disapprove

Posted by: snb at Wed Apr 18 04:46:33 2007 (aBLw4)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.
8kb generated in CPU 0.004, elapsed 0.0115 seconds.
21 queries taking 0.0085 seconds, 32 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
[/posts]