Hate Speech Scores A Victory

Fred Phelps or Reverend Kane From Poltergeist II?

Today, the US Supreme Court ruled, by a vote of 8-1, that the Westboro Baptist Church, led by anything but a Christian Fred Phelps, could not be sued for damages over picketing Matthew Snyder’s funeral.

In the decision, the court stated:

The “content” of Westboro’s signs plainly relates to public, rather than private, matters. The placards highlighted issues of public import—the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens, the fate of the Nation, homosexuality in the military, and scandals involving the Catholic clergy—and Westboro conveyed its views on those issues in a manner designed to reach as broad a public audience as possible. Even if a few of the signs were viewed as con-taining messages related to a particular individual, that would notchange the fact that the dominant theme of Westboro’s demonstration spoke to broader public issues.

In other words, since Westboro’s signs didn’t target Snyder directly their display of hate, intolerance, and ignorance is protected by the 1st Amendment.  It also means that Snyder’s parents cannot claim “intentional infliction of emotional distress“.

The court went to great lengths to make this ruling as narrow as possible, even going so far to point out that Westboro fulfilled all civil requirements (i.e. permits, protesting outside the funeral in a limited space) in order to justify this decision.

Justice Alito, dissenting wrote….

…it is abundantly clear that respondents, going far beyond commentary on matters of public concern, specifically attacked Matthew Snyder because (1) he was a Catholic and (2) he was a member of the United States military. Both Matthew and petitioner were private figures,  and this attack was not speech on a matter of public concern. While commentary on the Catholic Church or the United States military constitutes speech on matters of public concern, speech regarding Matthew Snyder’s purely private conduct does not.

Justice Alito got it right, the other eight were wrong.

Related articles

• Westboro Baptist Church Wins Supreme Court Appeal Over Funeral Protests (huffingtonpost.com)
• Supreme Court rules for anti-gay church over military funeral protests (cnn.com)
• Appalling: The Supreme Court Sides with Westboro Baptist… (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)