One of the most emotionally charged issues has finally reached the Supreme Court. It is the case of Snyder v. Phelps, a case that has forced many to take uncomfortable positions. And if you think you have figured out what side I’m taking in this fight… well, that’s why I call this blog “Rogue Corner”.
The case of Snyder v. Phelps concerns a protest by the Westboro Baptist Church against a Marine funeral in 2006 in Maryland. The father of the fallen Marine (Al Snyder) heard about the protest, saw it on tape, then found that the members of the church had posted hate about his son and family on-line. It was too much. Snyder sued the church, won a multi-million dollar judgment, only to have the judgment overturned on appeal. Now, the case has reached the highest court in the land. At stake: future definition of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.
To be fair, I don’t have kind words to say about the Westboro Baptist Church. This “church”, led by a former civil-rights attorney named Fred Phelps, is at least 2/3 related. Even folks from Appalachia think this group is largely “in-breds”. Over the years, they have shown up at funerals from Matthew Shephard to Mr. Rogers to soldiers who died in combat. They’ve even shown up at Comic Con in San Diego recently. They have single-handedly brought together political opposites from Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly to Michael Moore and Fox News, who have all tried to use the media to shame this church into changing their tune. In filing a friend of the Plaintiff’s brief, 48 states’ attorneys (Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals alike) joined together to try and influence the Supreme Court to basically bankrupt this group of bigoted and hypocritical bullies.
So you would think the Supreme Court should vote 9-0 against Fred Phelps and his Jack-booted followers, right? Not in my eyes. And apparently not in the eyes of the ACLU, and many national newspapers, from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal. We all are arguing the same point: their language is despicable, and it would be best if they would go away, but they have rights to speak whatever vile they wish. And, if I am allowed to go further, Al Snyder did go looking for Westboro blogs about what they had to say about him and his family. That was a mistake, and I think it’s this will ultimately cost Al Snyder at the Supreme Court. (Side note: me siding with the ACLU on a freedom of speech issue? You’d think my name was John Parks Brown!)
Look, saying to someone “God hates you” or “God is angry with you” stings people (and nobody knows that better than me how it feels). But at the same time, if we had a right to sue for people saying vile things about us, former President George W. Bush would supplant Carlos Slim as the richest man on earth. It shouldn’t be a reason to start down a dark path where freedom of speech could be compromised. We already had a stupid court decision in the last ten years with the Kelo case and eminent domain. Ruling against Westboro would be a bigger mistake, and I think the court should rule in the Phelps favor, although they’ll probably hold their noses in doing so. Remember, the Supreme Court has allowed Nazis to march through the Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie, IL in the past.
That doesn’t mean we should tolerate this church in our communities. The Comic Con folks had a great approach: dish it back and mock these protesters. Maybe one day this church will get the message: just because you have the right to protest doesn’t mean you should execute that right often.
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