When Justice Is Hard To Swallow

By Semperpapa

The Supreme Court handed down an 8-1 decision today regarding the case of Albert Snyder vs. the Westboro Baptist Church, siding with the now infamous cult-like religious sect on grounds of First Amendment rights.

In 2006, Albert Snyder's son, U.S. Marine Matthew Snyder was killed in Iraq. As the family was burying their son, members of the Phelps family protested outside the church the service was being held at, sporting signs with statements like "God hates fags" and "thank God for dead soldiers".
The message being advanced is that the small pseudo-Christian congregation believes that the dead soldiers in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan are punishment from God for the tolerance toward homosexuality on the part of the American society.

Albert Snyder filed a law suit against the WBC after he found a poem on their web site celebrating the death of his son. The grounds of the legal action were, if I recall, invasion of privacy and emotional distress.
A lower court had originally sided with Mr. Snyder but a appellate court threw the decision out on the basis of protection of free speech.
Today's decision, which saw only Justice Alito dissenting, granted the WBC special protection under the First Amendment guaranteed right to free speech.

The decision has sparked a volley of criticism and outrage from every corner of our Country, even uniting people from both sides of the political spectrum. The actions of the so-called church are appalling and disgusting to say the least.
The Topeka, Kansas, group identifies itself as a Christian congregation, but in reality their actions have very little or nothing in common with Christianity. In fact, they are much closer with the intolerant ideology of Sharia and radical Islam than anything else. Only the methodology is different, so far.

Allow me to premise my thoughts. I am a Patriot Guard Rider; I have personally seen the scum of the WBC in action and was forced to keep my emotions in check; I would like nothing less than to be able to personally sends the miscreants to face the Final Judgment. These are vile, disgusting, revolting individuals who are deeply deserving of being at the receiving end of any sort of violence, but the United States is still a Nation guided by the rule of law and by the Constitution.

The decision of the SCOTUS was the only one that the court could take, especially these days when the US Constitution is under direct and relentless attack on the part of the ruling elite.
Saved the issues of invasion of privacy and emotional distress, the ability of individuals to voice their opinions, as vitriolic they may be, cannot be curtailed.
The comparison with yelling FIRE in a crowded room does not apply, because the awful actions of the Phelps is technically not endangering the safety of anyone person. As a matter of fact, they are in more danger of retaliation than the people they strive to hurt.

Prohibiting these inbreds from speaking is the proverbial slippery slope.
We are incensed by the continuous attempts of Al Sharpton to silence Rush Limbaugh; by the relentless attacks against Glenn Beck; by the open push to silence Fox News. Allowing the law to be swayed in favor of curtailing the freedom of speech of the WBC gang would be a giant step toward legislation against the ability of every American to speak his mind.

This is one of those cases where emotions have to be kept under control, just as I had to control my instinctive need to hurt those WBC people I had the misfortune to see, and instead look at the big picture. At face value, the decision of the SCOTUS can be seen as a failure of the judicial system to protect the dignity of those who have died in the service of the Nation and their families, but in reality, the decision speaks to me as a gesture that, in effects, protects the American people from the manipulation of the Constitution.
Contrary to the opinion of the progressive thinking, the Constitution is not a "living document" there to be "adapted" to every circumstance.

Then there is the cultural part of this whole issue. When such type of hate surfaces, so does the ever present American Spirit.
When the WBC started to show up at Military funerals, it was a Veteran and member of the American Legion Riders who decided to do something about it. With a group of other Veterans from the ALR and the participation of truck drivers, they started to counter-protest against the Phelps by covering them with the large vehicles and drowning their offensive chanting with the sound of their motorcycles.
Soon it became clear that the spontaneous response of the ALR was attracting a growing number of folks, many of them non-Veterans, so a new organization was created: the Patriot Guard Riders.
The PGR caught fire across the Nation. Every state of the Union has a presence. The part that is most amazing is the inclusiveness of the group which only requires that the participants display the proper respect for the Fallen and their families, show up only when invited by the family and do not engage in any political discourse while on missions.
Our mission is to shield the families from the additional pain of seeing or hearing folks like the Westboro Baptist Church miscreants.

There are many ways that American society can combat such hate by using the laws governing local municipalities regarding protest permits and by exercising the same constitutional rights that allow the WBC to spread their vitriol.
There is no doubt that some times the application of justice can be hard to swallow. This case it is filled with emotional connotations, which, as a Marine dad, I can deeply understand and share, but in the long run, in the general context of our society, I have to agree with this decision, while always searching for contingency plans.

Just my thoughts!