The Westboro Baptist Church is known for protesting soldier's funerals, praising the Lord for 9/11, professing that God hates fags and other outlandish and crazy things. The First Amendment means a lot to a journalist - but there's also laws about hate and discrimination, but the Supreme Court's majority 8-1 voted that it's okay for these delusional God worshipers to continue to be a disturbance and show their intolerance. They basically think America is terrible and God hates it. The church has only 80 members who are all related, and apparently they are the only ones who understand the bible.
The only member of the Supreme Court who had his head on straight was Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr, as reported by many sources including the Washington Post.
The article from the Washington Post includes:
"Eight justices of the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that no matter how hurtful the speech employed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church, the First Amendment protected them from having to pay damages to the grieving father they targeted.
Alito said they were all wrong.
Alito's condemnatory dissent said the Constitution's guarantee of free speech did not allow members of the fringe church to protest the funeral of Albert Snyder's fallen Marine son Matthew and "brutalize" the family with their lewd and cruel messages."
Personally surprising was Sarah Palin's support for those in opposition. Here is her tweet:
The whole Westboro Congregation is known for being outlandish and crazy - and should be stopped. How unAmerican, really. Supreme Court - there's disappointment in you from all over - there's protesting for good cause and then there's just being disrespectful jerks that are delusional. There are many videos and the great interview Fox had with Shirley Phelps titled "Crazy Lady on Fox News." Go search for it.
Expect a follow up post on this!