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Supreme Court rules in favor of WBC

Kane said:
Those religious nuts are disturbing the peace, club them in the head. They are NOT petitioning the government for a greivance, and does not qualify as "peaceable assembly".

Second, throw all the Supreme Court in jail for incompetence.
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Jetboogieman said:
Please in detail describe whats wrong with the ruling and why you feel it isn't correct given something people highlight alot these days now there's a black democrat in the white house.

The Constitution.
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Blind, as well as deaf, then?

The great trick of TV news state propaganda is to convince the gullible that what they're seeing on the screen

is not injustice. In the end, Winston Smith loved Big Brother.
 
I am wondering what people think of Alito's dissent. The media is almost uniformly reporting it thus:

Alito’s dissent argues that Albert Snyder was not a public figure, and there is no First Amendment right to “brutalize” the grieving father. Alito was also the dissenter in a First Amendment ruling last year striking down a law that bars depictions of animal cruelty.
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Supreme Court Rules First Amendment Protects Westboro's Funeral Protesters from Tort Suits - News - ABA Journal

Is there any point where speech becomes 'brutal' enough to warrant a curb against it?
 
Kane said:
Just how much crack is Justice Roberts smoking?
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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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Hopefully this helps your confusion.
 
I know most people agree with the free speech ruling, I do too. Just wondering what would you think if we banned any kind of protesting at all funerals? You can protest any time/place except funerals are the exception?
 
danarhea said:
I agree that it is free speech, which gives me a couple of great ideas.

1) Every time someone from WBC dies, picket HIS funeral with signs that say he is going to hell. Make HIS family cry, and maybe they will see the light and leave the **cough** church **cough**.

2) Next time they picket, somebody just kick their asses, and then a new case can go to the Supreme Court, seeking a ruling on whether inciting a riot is considered free speech.
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That's exactly what they want. Just ignore them.
 
I have to agree with everyone else... well, almost everyone. This is America, bastion of protected speech. The ruling is even more important when we realize that in France a loud-mouthed fashion designer is actually charged with a crime and will go on trial for a vile, 30-second anti-semitic rant in a restaurant.

When we stifle speech we find offensive, all speech will eventually be stifled.
 
DiAnna said:
I have to agree with everyone else... well, almost everyone. This is America, bastion of protected speech. The ruling is even more important when we realize that in France a loud-mouthed fashion designer is actually charged with a crime and will go on trial for a vile, 30-second anti-semitic rant in a restaurant.

When we stifle speech we find offensive, all speech will eventually be stifled.
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Agreed, freedoms are easily accepted as long as they go with your beliefs, it's when they go against your very core beliefs that they are tested .

That said, I gotta say that if shots were to ring out from some distant hilltop, and a few of those protesters were to fall, I wouldn't shed a tear for them either.
 
danarhea said:
I agree that it is free speech, which gives me a couple of great ideas.

1) Every time someone from WBC dies, picket HIS funeral with signs that say he is going to hell. Make HIS family cry, and maybe they will see the light and leave the **cough** church **cough**.

2) Next time they picket, somebody just kick their asses, and then a new case can go to the Supreme Court, seeking a ruling on whether inciting a riot is considered free speech.
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I think I read where a group of bikers did something similar. They surrounded the graveside service and revved their bikes so the shouts of the WBC could not be heard. I think that is the way to deal with them -

God Bless the Bikers!!!! Westboro Baptist Church gets drowned out by BIKERS!!!
 
I still think they could have carved out an exception for the funerals of non-public figures, because of the pretty unique interests involved, but I am ok with this decision too, I guess.
 
Jetboogieman said:
Please in detail describe whats wrong with the ruling and why you feel it isn't correct given something people highlight alot these days now there's a black democrat in the white house.

The Constitution.
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Jet, why the mention of the "black Democrat in the White House"? What are you suggesting, if anything?
 
There remains one aspect to this ruling that bothers me.

Rights are not absolute. They cease when actions infringe on the rights of others.

Do these demonstrations not infringe on another's right to conduct a funeral and burial in peace?
 
Erod said:
Do these demonstrations not infringe on another's right to conduct a funeral and burial in peace?
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Show me where that right is in the constitution.

Therein lies the problem. No one has the right to a peaceful funeral/burial.
 
Jetboogieman said:
Show me where that right is in the constitution.

Therein lies the problem. No one has the right to a peaceful funeral/burial.
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Erod's point, I believe, is that the court has made exceptions to free speech rulings before (the whole yelling "fire" in a crowded theater thing), they probably could have found one here. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the ruling, but it could have just as easily gone the other way.
 
Jetboogieman said:
Show me where that right is in the constitution.

Therein lies the problem. No one has the right to a peaceful funeral/burial.
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So could a group of white supremists attend a black funeral and scream the n-word at the crowd?

That's not in the Constitution either.
 
Erod said:
So could a group of white supremists attend a black funeral and scream the n-word at the crowd?

That's not in the Constitution either.
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Do you have hate crime legislation to deal with that kind of thing, because technically if they stood their silent they could....
 
Jetboogieman said:
Do you have hate crime legislation to deal with that kind of thing, because technically if they stood their silent they could....
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I don't remember hate speech being mentioned in the Constitution. But if that's the measure, is not what the WBC doing the same as hate speech?
 
This pisses me off, but I can certainly understand the SC's argument in favor of WBC's 1st Amendment rights.

I wish these mother****ers would come to Louisiana. I would take advantage of my 1st Amendment rights by standing in the middle of their protest with my own sign. I would say something like, "God hates assholes...especially Westboro Bapatist Church assholes", or something to that effect.
 
Erod said:
I don't remember hate speech being mentioned in the Constitution. But if that's the measure, is not what the WBC doing the same as hate speech?
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We've denied them access to Canada before.

But not under hate crimes legislation but political pressure.

I don't know the technicalities of your hate speech laws but lets say you call someone a nigger in Canada, well that violates hate speech laws in Canada and you CAN be charged, doesn't happen very often though.

Extremist church to be blocked at border: report - CTV News

Canadian border guards have been told to bar a fanatic church group that was planning to protest the funeral of a man beheaded on a Greyhound bus, reports say.

NDP MP Pat Martin told the Winnipeg Free Press that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day sent the alert to border guards Thursday.

The church group, described in a British documentary as "the most hated family in America," told CTV.ca earlier Thursday that it planned to protest at the funeral of 22-year-old Tim Mclean on Saturday.

Martin said his office was flooded with phone calls Thursday with Winnipeg constituents angered by the group's plan.

"These people are almost as crazy as the murderer," he told the newspaper, referring to the church's intentions.

The daughter of the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Ka., told CTV.ca she and several other church members will go to Winnipeg on Saturday to demonstrate against what she described as McLean's "filthy way of life." Shirley Phelps-Roper said his life was emblematic of Canada's moral decay.

"God handed us a gift," Phelps-Roper said in a phone interview on Thursday.

She said McLean deserved his death by beheading on a Greyhound Bus last week.

"(His death was) supremely unemotional. You got God shaking in rage. There is no emotional component ... He was a rebel against God. He was taught to be a rebel by his parents. He came from a rebel country ... They brought this wrath upon his head. And it sucks to be him and it sucks to be them," Phelps-Roper said.

She said his brutal murder was a sign from God.

"You gotta connect the dots, people ... from your idols to your filthy way of life," she said.

"Here's what I know. He is dead and God does not do that to people that serve in his truth."

Phelps-Roper described McLean -- who she had never met -- in an insulting, insensitive and graphic manner. Her crudest descriptions of the 22-year-old are not printed.

"I haven't met him personally, but he has nothing going on," she said dismissively.

"(His life) was all about him. Blah, blah, blah ... He was a rebel ... I don't need to know anything else ... I don't need to know the minutia. Everything you need to know is right there."

The Westboro Baptist church has gained notoriety in recent years for setting up protest pickets at the funerals of U.S. soldiers who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Church members claim the deaths are part of God's wrath against Americans for turning their back on his teachings. They have repeatedly called the U.S. a "fag" nation, a phrase Phelps-Roper used repeatedly to describe Canada.

Phelps-Roper said she does not mind that her family is reviled by the majority of Americans. She claimed she rejoices when people say they despise and hate her family.
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2008.
 
apdst said:
This pisses me off, but I can certainly understand the SC's argument in favor of WBC's 1st Amendment rights.

I wish these mother****ers would come to Louisiana. I would take advantage of my 1st Amendment rights by standing in the middle of their protest with my own sign. I would say something like, "God hates assholes...especially Westboro Bapatist Church assholes", or something to that effect.
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Shoot us a PM for that date, and Jet and I will meet you there. My sign will read, "There's a special place in hell for the WBC. Tell Hitler Germany still hasn't won a war."
 
Erod said:
Shoot us a PM for that date, and Jet and I will meet you there. My sign will read, "There's a special place in hell for the WBC. Tell Hitler Germany still hasn't won a war."
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I'll pretend to be gay and come onto Fred :mrgreen: couldn't think of a better way to piss him off :mrgreen:
 
Jetboogieman said:
Do you have hate crime legislation to deal with that kind of thing, because technically if they stood their silent they could....
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Hate speech is protected by the 1st Amendment. The SC just said so. Remember?
 
Jetboogieman said:
I don't know the technicalities of your hate speech laws but lets say you call someone a nigger in Canada, well that violates hate speech laws in Canada and you CAN be charged, doesn't happen very often though.
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It's not illegal to call someone a racial slur in the United States.
 
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