Westboro Baptist Church:
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment to the Constitution protects members of the fundamentalist church, who mount protests anti-gay outside military funerals, despite the pain caused by grief of families - and Washington.
Court voted 8-1 in favor of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas decision upheld the Court of Appeal ruling that the expulsion of $ 5 million to the father of a Marine shot which brought a lawsuit against members of the church after the funeral of his son perform.
Wrote Chief Justice John Roberts opinion of the Court. Justice Samuel Alito dissented.
Roberts said the rights to freedom of expression in the First Amendment to shield the funeral protesters, noting that they obeyed police instructions and 1000 feet from the church.
"The word is powerful and can move people to work, move them to tears of both joy and sadness, and - as it did here - caused great pain, on the facts before us, and we can not respond to this pain by punishing the language," said Roberts. "As we have chosen a different path - to protect even offensive speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate."
Alito, strongly disagreed. "We have a profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license to vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case," he said.
Matthew Snyder died in Iraq in 2006 and his body was returned to the United States for burial. Members decided Baptist Church Westboro, who perform military funerals for several years, to protest outside Westminster Abbey in the state of Maryland, where his funeral was scheduled to take place.
We have carried out and the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his family, who make up more than Westboro Baptist Church many military funerals in their quest to draw attention to their point of view that the incendiary U.S. death toll in Afghanistan and Iraq, and God's punishment for the country's tolerance of homosexuality.
And presented with signs of the usual, including "Thank God for dead soldiers", "You are going to hell," "God hates the United States of America / Praise God for the 11 / 9," which combines the one under the banner of U.S. Marines, Semper Fi , with a slur against gay men.
