Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Why the Westboro Baptist Church clowns will win. #tcot #wpc

I'm not a lawyer, but this seems open and shut.



The facts: members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) assembled on public property near a military funeral to protest military policy. When he learned about it afterward, the father of the deceased was properly outraged over the things the group said, and sued.



Without going too far into it, let me give the nub: WBC wins. They were not trespassing, or otherwise disruptive; the father didn't even know they were there.







Matthew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of the Liberty University School of Law, said that his organization "expressly condemns the offensive tactics employed by the Phelpses" but did file a brief in support of the First Amendment.

"The Supreme Court must not use the bad facts of this case to restrict legitimate free speech rights of law-abiding citizens," Staver said. "The First Amendment does not grant to anyone a veto right over another person's speech, simply because it might be offensive. Free speech needs breathing room. I would rather tolerate a person's offensive speech than be silenced by the force of law."




If the WBC must not protest near the funeral, how far away must they be? Because if they are not disrupting the funeral itself, then their actual location doesn't matter. They could offend just as well from anywhere.



And what must they say and not say?



There are no answers to any of these questions, and a court would have to answer all ofthem to rule agains WBC.


Sphere: Related Content

2 comments:

A Proud Veteran said...

I am very surprised that a greiving father of one of the deceased has not opened fire on these ignorant morons!
I am not so sure that I would be able to stand by and let these fools protest the funeral of my son or daughter for serving our great nation and giving the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the very freedoms these dispicable jerks enjoy!

Anonymous said...

If that be the case so be it. BUT the Citizens of Topeka Ks. Could and should not sell any good or service to the church or it's members. Let's see how long they can go without gasoline or food or electricity. HE HE HE HA HA HA.

Blog stats

Add to Technorati Favorites