Supreme Court votes 8-1 in favor of Fred Phelps

[tko_ak]

Story.

Comments

[crysania4]

I agree SO MUCH with this. Right to privacy for funerals should trump these asshole's freedom of speech.

[aethwolf]

The thing is they have the protests on public property, so there's not really any expectation of privacy there.

Had the ruling gone the other way, I'd be worried about the reasoning being abused by unscrupulous politicians to quash legitimate protests, which is a bit too fascist for my tastes.

[fabfemmeboy]

It's not that you have a right specifically to disrupt funerals. It's that you have a fundamental right to speech in a public place unless there is a specific regulation that prohibits it. They're on public property. The "private" funeral is across the street, or down the block, or across town. I can go right now and protest a "private" christening ceremony across the street from a church if I want - it's within my first amendment rights. There is no such thing as a blanket right to privacy and certainly not one that applies specifically to mourners or anyone else while walking through a public area such as a street or a park or a sidewalk which is where these protesters always are

[curieuse]

8-1 decison -- the terms of the argument were pretty clear-cut.

[machmed]

I see no problem with the ruling.

[a_tergo_lupi]

This. He's a douchenozzle, but he is, thankfully for all of us, a constitutionally protected douchenozzle.

[jarrellwoods]

Yep. And being a band of lawyers, they have every single I dotted etc. etc. They know they're within the law.

[fabfemmeboy]

Same here. And I think it's telling that all 4 liberal justices voted with the majority; this wasn't some 5-4 ideological conservative pro-Phelps opinion. Alito was the one who dissented for crying out loud!

[jadedone2many]

I really really really wish we could all just ignore this giant asshat & his band of asshat followers. UGH. Wonder how long he'd last once we stop giving him attention.

[glitterstraz]

As upsetting as the protests are, I think the court made the right decision. Public property, free speech.

I like fabfemmeboy's idea. No protesting at funerals, ever. Even if it's the funeral of a murderer, I think the family still deserves their moment without people picketing and making a scene, no matter how sick the deceased person was in life.