Westboro Baptist Church — famous for its “God Hates Fags” signs, the Rev. Fred Phelps, and his daughter Crazy Shirley — had a $5 million judgment against it overturned by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. The court found that the church’s protest outside the funeral of a Westminster Marine killed in Iraq were protected free speech and did not violate the privacy of the service member’s family:
The ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., held that the signs and writings of the Westboro Baptist Church, which included anti-gay and anti-military messages, are protected by the First Amendment. The Topeka-based congregation has protested at military funerals across the country
“Notwithstanding the distasteful and repugnant nature of the words being challenged in these proceedings, we are constrained to conclude that the defendants’ signs and [what it has on its Web sites] are constitutionally protected,” Circuit Court Judge Robert B. King wrote in the majority opinion.
. . .”Everyone knows that we didn’t disrupt a funeral,” said Phelps, daughter of the Rev. Fred W. Phelps Sr. “Our speech, on our signs and our Web sites, is public speech. It’s not on private matters. It’s on public issues, so it’s protected.”
Sean E. Summers, an attorney for the dead Marine’s father, said he will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In related news, members of Westboro were in Brooklyn to protest Brooklyn Technical High School, but the Westboro-ers left 15 minutes early after they were outnumbered by nearly 200 students counterprotesters.
What did Crazy Shirley have to say about the abbreviated protest? She said, ” . . [the students] had better obey their God or they are going downtown, clown.”
27. September 2009 at 4:15 pm
This is part of a larger trend towards the erosion of privacy rights by the courts, the politicians, and the corporations. We should all be concerned.