The Westboro Baptist "Church" Case

The Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments about the case of the Maine father against the Westboro (so-called) Baptist Church from Kansas. This group sends protestors out to military funerals thanking God for deaths of soldiers, claiming that they are the price our nation pays for "tolerating" homosexuality.

Reagrdless of your position on gay marriage, these people have to make you sick. They go to these solemn and grief filled occasions to chant against the military and gays, usually making more of a fuss and attracting more attention that they deserve.

It annoys me to hear these people described as "Baptist" or a "church" because they honestly are neither. They are a small club of hatred who will hopefully get what is coming to them for dishonoring our fighting men and women. I also wonder what their ideas on homosexuals really are. What is their alternative to recognizing their natural rights? I shudder to think.

This case bothers me, though. Personally, if I were at a loved one's funeral and they showed up, I would probably be arrested for assault. I'd violate the law and take whatever punishment that the law saw fit to mete out. However, I am not comfortable with the legal suppression of this group's right to free speech so long as they do not trespass on private property.

I hate the Westboroites just as much as I hate Nazis and Communists. All three of these groups seek to play on resentments and hatreds of some group of people somewhere to advance their agendas. What makes all three basically irrelevant is the fact that they can speak freely in our country without government sanction. If the government suppresses them, it makes them seem important enough to suppress and will win them a slight amount of credibility that they lacked before.

We do have a precedent for suppression of obnoxious speech, the theatre test. If the speech is tantamount to shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre, then it can be limited. In other words, it must be proved that the speech creates a dangerous situation for the public. The Westboroites do not rise to that standard. If we do suppress their speech, where will it end? How can we define what political speech is permissible? Do we suppress the Westboroites while Nazis continue to speak their mind against Jews and minorities?

I reluctantly hope that the U. S. Supreme Court upholds the right to free speech. I hate the Westboroites, but believe that suppressing their speech is more dangerous to our system than allowing them to continue their obnoxious ways. I still hope someone beats the crap out of them everywhere they go, though.