The Westboro Baptist Church won a landmark case for the First Amendment in the Supreme Court with an 8-1 decision in its favor.
The church achieved notoriety for protesting at funerals for soldiers killed overseas. While you may not agree with what they say, the Westboro Baptists have the right to say it as long as they obey the law.
Margie Phelps, daughter of church founder Fred Phelps, addressed a conference for aspiring journalists in New York City about the case. The Critic had four members attending the conference and sitting in the room where she spoke. She was the lawyer who defended the right of the church to continue operating as it does to the Supreme Court.
“You don’t do what we do and not know what the courts say about how you’re suppose to picket and how you’re not suppose to picket,” said Phelps to a conference room full of future journalists. “We know your law and we follow your law.”
Some of the children of Fred Phelps are lawyers and make sure to comply with the local laws where they protest.
“Always picketing on public property,” said Margie Phelps. “Always a distance away. Always leaving when it was time for the funeral to start. We don’t go inside and we wouldn’t go inside. We don’t block ingress or egress and we wouldn’t. We don’t disrupt what’s going on and we wouldn’t.”
There have been people in the past holding signs declaring the end of the world, but this group took it to the next level with protesting at the funerals of dead U.S. soldiers and holding signs that read “God hates America” and “Thank God for IEDs”.
While it may be hard to side with someone who says things like: “For the first ten years we treated you to stop sinning and you didn’t,” said Phelps. “For the more recent decade we’ve been telling you it’s too late now. You’ve crossed the line with God, your destruction is imminent and this nation is doomed.”
Why the church preaches this is not what matters. What matters is that they be allowed to continue it. The Supreme Court ruled that under our laws of free speech what they are doing and saying is legal and is protected.
Should the group be doing this is another matter and one that courts have no jurisdiction.
“The First Amendment doesn’t get an opinion on should,” said Phelps. “It’s the business of your conscience whether you should. That is not an appropriate question ever for the government.”