| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
|
Locked on 12/07/2007 3:00:14 PM PST by Lead Moderator, reason:
duplicate: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1936368/posts |
Posted on 12/07/2007 2:38:55 PM PST by Pyro7480
A federal appeals court Thursday sided with a Kansas woman who believes that God’s hatred of homosexuality requires her to picket funerals for American soldiers holding signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Blew Up the Troops.”
Shirley Phelps-Roper is part of a Topeka, Kan. church that contends God is punishing the United States for permitting homosexuality by killing soldiers. In response to a August 2005 protest by Phelps-Roper and other members of her church at the funeral of Army Spc. Edward Lee Myers in St. Joseph, Mo., the Missouri legislature passed a par of laws that prohibited picketing near a funeral location or procession.
Phelps-Roper sued the state of Missouri and asked for an injunction against the enforcement of the provisions, claiming they were unconstitutional. The federal trial court denied Phelps-Roper her injunction and she appealed that denial to the federal appeals court in St. Louis.
Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit granted Phelps-Roper the injunction, pending a full hearing on the merits of her claim. Typically, an injunction is granted if the petitioner can prove she is likely to prevail on her lawsuit. In this case, the panel found that Missouri’s law was likely unconstitutional because “any interest the state has in protecting funeral mourners from unwanted speech is outweighed by the First Amendment right to free speech.”
(Excerpt) Read more at weblogs.baltimoresun.com ...
If this is the case, all hate speech laws should be wiped off the books.
And there would be a whole lot of people saying. “I didn’t see anything.”
You are scary, man.
The First Amendment is really only necessary to protect unpopular speech. When we stop protecting fringe or radical speech, we really don’t have “free” speech any longer — only popular opinions can be voiced.
One good “senile” grandpa with a 1973 Buick and a well adjusted aimer ( hood ornament ) could put an end to this whole issue.
Free speech is regulated all the time, in terms of “time, place, manner.” If “time, place, manner” doesn’t apply to funerals for our deceased heroes, I don’t know what does.
I think that would be appropriate. when these clowns show up to dishonor a fallen soldier and and family, they should receive immediate peoples’ justice.
A '73 Caprice Classic would do a good job, too.
I just saw an article in the paper about a man getting arrested and his truck impounded in Georgia, because he had posters on the truck of aborted fetuses.
Apparently there is no right to his claim of free speech, but the Westboro ghouls do have “free speech” claims.
More double standards.
Agreed. But I think that the point of debate here is the forum for unpopular speech. While I err on the side of hesitating to allowing government restrictions on unpopular speech presentation (e.g., President Bush's restricting protests to specific that are out of the public eye), there is something to be said for the argument that the forum in question here is really the disruption of a private ceremony/harassment.
I hate them (and their message) as much as everybody else, but I have to say that they have rights to say whatever they want. However, IMO, the government can make a rule such as the group cannot be closer than certain feet from the funeral. Just like protesters in WH lawn can be arrested, those people too, can be arrested if they violate the rules.
Free speech is equally balanced with free association - one can not trump the other - the mourners have asked for a limited restriction of free speech in order to maintain free association - I don’t see the problem the court detects in this law.
The next step.....
Jury awards grieving father $2.9 million in verdict against military funeral protesters
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1919123/posts
The family should file a lawsuit for intentional infliction of emotional distress, then.
The Phelps gang is not a church, it is a lawyer power-cult, using insult and abuse as their symbols of status and dominance. Fred himself is a disbarred lawyer, and 9 of his 13 children are lawyers. Three of them are employed by the Kansas Department of Corrections.
This is probably why judges are willing to grant them more consideration than they would give other hate-mongers. Imagine, for example, uniformed neo-nazis routinely desecrating Jewish funerals or KKK thugs in robes showing up across the street from a black funeral.
When common courtesy becomes an uncommon virtue than uncommonly harsh actions get taken to remind the degenerate scum that there’s reasons to behave and repercussions when that is forgotten.
The really scary part is how many have fallen for the juvenile and intellectually inbred bullsh** that the leftardic rantochanting morons have used to twist our freedoms so out of shape as to render them meaningless.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.