This is just outrageous

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Legal is a binary state--an act or omission is either legal or it's not. The gravity of the transgression goes to the question of quantum or sanction, but not to the determination of right.

"Technically legal," appears to be code for, "things that are legal that we don't like." I object strongly to characterizing freedom of speech as, "seams," into which conduct, "falls." It characterizes free speech as a defence behind which the objectionable hide, rather than a fundamental freedom of a democratic, liberal society.



You have arrived at your exhaustive conclusion after very little analysis. There are many options left before resorting to vigilateism. (I will not grace it with the epithet, "justice.")

When do people get to pick and choose which pieces of the Constitution they will support? If you don't like people's free speech, then seek to repeal the First Amendment. That's the choice of every citizen in a free and democratic society.

Look, I found their sister church! http://www.landoverbaptist.org/

Seriously though, I think it's disgraceful that the poor guy has to pay legal fees. There are a lot of lawyers in the family though, so perhaps it's not so surprisig that they get away with this crap.

ah...the westbro baptist church again. i hate those people. they think everyone is going to hell except them. i swear they're a result of inbreeding or something. side note: they're banned from entering the UK. everyone hates them because they're filled with such hate.

I think in the UK if such a counter demo took place, the police would arrest the demonstrators for breach of the peace.

By the way, the Landover Baptist Church website is a spoof, not the real thing.

Yeah, I know, hence my next sentence after the link started with 'seriously though'...

Try burning a cross on your own lawn and see how far the constitution protects you; I don't see how burning a cross is anymore a hate crime than tell the bereaved that their lost loved one is burning in hell for the "sins" of a nation. They hate us because we are starting to except homosexuals are people who are the way they were born, rather than a group deserving to be exterminated, so beware because we were born the way we are as well.

You know what they say...people who are homophobic are often covering up their own latent homosexuality.

There's a huge difference between constitutionally supported freedom of speech and criminal harassment. Bursting into a private occasion and raving about your lunatic religious sect's hateful beliefs and refusing to leave is what I'd call criminal harassment.

Not necessarily. Justice and the law aren't always on the same side. After all, in many parts of the Middle East getting raped is punishable by death. It's the law, but is it justice?

They recently showed up at a local high school, and the counter-protesters far outnumbered them, and the students in the high school ignored them. Another target of the WBC's hate in my area was the local Jewish community center, which shows that not only are they extremely homophobic, but anti-Semitic as well. I've also heard that the most rabid homophobes are often deep in the closet about their real sexuality.

I have heard that as well.

Think of it this way: if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church, then yes, they'll continue picketing more military funerals; but at least we'll be constitutionally secure in our right to picket Fred Phelps' funeral, and I know that a lot of people are just dying to do that.

ever heard the phrase, "only the good die young"? it seems to me that the meanies often outlive the rest of us, that in fact they are just too cussed mean to die. for folk like fred phelps and his ilk, meanness is their lifeforce, their reason for being alive. i believe that him and his group will still be grousing and kicking over gravestones when me and that man behind the tree are pushing up the daisies.
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What is a Mosquito? It's an insect that makes you like flies better.

Church of Fred topic

Like the klan, hamas, Galloway and various Political-terror Islamic groups, this so-called Church fellowship is a hate disseminating organization, and as such, is banned in Canada. Peaceful protesting is not what these groups do. Their agenda is violence.