If this is the case, all hate speech laws should be wiped off the books.
One good “senile” grandpa with a 1973 Buick and a well adjusted aimer ( hood ornament ) could put an end to this whole issue.
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.