Do you believe in free speech? At what price should this freedom cost? Albert Snyder's lawsuit against Westboro Baptist Church is a wonderful case study of what free speech means. Snyder was ordered to pay $16,000 to Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. Phelps and his congregation travel the United States protesting gay’s, by picketing military funerals. To the Phelp’s gang military deaths are God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality.
When Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder was slain in Iraq protecting the Constitution, his body was sent home for his funeral. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church showed up not to pay respects, but rather protest—Homosexuality. They waved signs claiming, “God hates fags” and “God hates the USA” at this young man’s funeral in Westminster, MD.
A federal jury in Baltimore awarded Snyder $11 million in damages in 2007, saying Phelps’ group intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the family. The award was later reduced to $5 million, and eventually overturned on appeal, a federal appeals court dismissed the suit on First Amendment grounds. It is currently scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Against this remember, in 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment barred the Rev. Jerry Falwell from suing Hustler Magazine for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Mr. Snyder, has testified that the protests continue to haunt and disturb him. Mr. Snyder said he becomes angry and tearful when he thinks about the protest. The memory of these events has caused him to vomit, clear indications of emotional distress.
So is this free speech or yelling fire in a crowded theater?
Citations
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/03/31/2010-03-31_bill_oreilly_helps_albert_snyder_after_weird_westboro_baptist_church_protests_hi.html#ixzz0jrBAsNot
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/us/09scotus.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/people-from-across-the-us.html
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I have always operated under the idea that my rights end where your rights begin. I believe the family has the right to gather and honor their family member without hassle and the group has the right to protest as long as they do it in a non offensive manor. Our society has established a core group of morals, that the majority agrees with, and a violation of those morals, while not illegal, is on bad taste. If you want to be taken seriously act responsibly and i don't think the protestors do this.
ReplyDeletewell, I agree with the whole my rights end... thing. I really do. But if we are looking at this constitutionally, as far as I know, they had every right to protest under free speech. BUT! did they follow the law and get the appropriate permits and such?
ReplyDeleteIts a dick move to protest homosexuality at a military funeral, or any funeral for that matter, because they don't really correlate. I disagree with the protest, but from my understanding of the constitution its legit. Kinda sucks, but there you go.
The freedoms we have can present strange bedfellows. The protestors have every right under the First Amendment to protest. Under the Constitution it does not matter whether a protest is in good or bad taste. Bad taste does not necessarily harm, while yelling fire in a crowded theater does.
ReplyDeleteWords are harmful to those that allow them to be. However a persons right to offend ends at a persons nose. They can yell and scream insults, but if they punch another in the nose the right to retaliate is assured as a natural right(natural right means given by nature if you are Druid, atheist or non-religious or given by God if you are religious).
Of course the battery of a person is a different issue than mere protest. Words can hurt sometimes, but the debate that is never reconciled is whether they permanently harm. As long as there is that debate it is best to be on the side of the freedom.