Supreme Court rules 8-1 that Westboro Church has the right to protest

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by darius359au

If it's their "Right" to free speech ,then doesn't that mean that other people would have the right to picquet and block off their church with demonstrations? seems to me it's all the same thing ,maybe someone might decide to do it back to them

I have not had time to read the full decision yet(going to in a little while, we will no doubt discuss the case in my class tomorrow) but my understanding from what I have read/heard on the news is they were not in view of the Marines family and other attendees of the funeral, so they were not harming the Marine's family per say.The father of the fallen actually said he only saw the top of the signs and only learned what they said until later.Simply put, the "can't cry fire in a crowded theater" argument(which is often used to argue against controversial/unwanted speech although that limit is in place to prevent abuse of free speech) did not apply here since their protest was doing no direct harm at the moment.8-1 is a pretty sweeping decision.Like it or not, the jerks get to protest.

Good news is they can be contained...