Westboro Baptist SC ruling

Nobody validated these activities or implied in any way that they are moral, only that there was no legal basis for prohibiting them. It's also improper to use the expression "hide behind the constitution". If you think there is something wrong with the constitution, then you should be working to change it to prohibit free expression. Like it or not, the freedoms in our country allow for hurtful speech and even certain activity that most would agree is immoral.

We are going to make you into a strict constructionist, libertarian yet.:clap:

I'm not sure I understand how one can have it both ways in their minds.....

"One ... way to put it is that the First Amendment protects heartless, crass morons from any legal liability for trading on the grief of families in order to make headlines."

or, as Alito put it:

?Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case.?

I don't know what Alito was thinking, and neither do his colleagues. If you want to end vicious verbal assault, you'd have to stop the printing presses and shut down the Internet.

I don't like what these people say, but I know that we need to let them say it. They can have websites, books, signs, videos, protests at many locations, you name it as their venues.

But I think that they are infringing on other's rights when they choose a burial or church service and a captive grieving audience as the venue for their protests.

There are already restrictions on free speech to protect people. I do not think that limiting protests surrounding funerals/burials, especially funerals/burials of veterans is in any way a slippery slope.

The legal system already has rules about funerals and how the dead are treated because it recognizes that funerals/burials are important.

I can assure you that if you censor them you will embolden them and escalate their rhetoric.

I don't think they can get bolder or escalate their rhetoric.

They're not exactly meek.

I don't think they can get bolder or escalate their rhetoric.

They're not exactly meek.

Remember that when they go from signs to guns and bombs.

They go out of their way to make sure they follow the rules so they can't be prosecuted. Lots of people are waiting for any excuse to shut them up.

They go near guns and bombs and they'll go to jail. Works for me.

MOAA didn't...and still doesn't...see it as a free speech issue, but rather as a vicious and reprehensible personal attack on individual service members and their families. We're disappointed, to say the least, that the court did not agree. Military Officer's Association of America Legislative Update.