It just ain't right

Some things may be legal and protected by the Constitution, but that doesn't make them right.

The despicable Rev. Fred Phelps and his ghoulish band of haters from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS first catapulted into notoriety when they picketed Matthew Sheppard's funeral, holding up signs saying "Matthew is burning in hell" and "Jesus hates fags."

You might think that Fred Phelps is an ignorant backwoods homophobic fundamentalist. Well, he may be. But most of his congregation of 70 or 80 consists of members of his own large family. I have colleagues in Topeka, some of whose spouses have taught the Phelps children who, they say, are very smart. Several have law degrees. Yet the closely knit family band -- only one son apparently left the fold for the outside world -- maintains the small church and the weekday family business of standing on street corners in Topeka shouting exhortations to passersby. They have even protested at the funeral of Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Their funeral protesting has moved on from gay men and AIDS to roaming the country to protest at funerals of service men killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not because they were gay soldiers but, as their signs read: "Thank God for dead soldiers." They claim that God is punishing the U.S. for tolerating homosexuality, and they are prophets trying to save a doomed nation.

Albert Snyder, whose Marine son's funeral was disturbed by their presence, fought back -- suing for invasion of privacy and intentionally inflictly emotional distress -- and won a $5 million damage settlement from a lower federal court.

The judgment was reversed by the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals and is now headed for the Supreme Court as a test of whether the church's actions, no matter how provocative and upsetting, are constitutionally protected speech.

Heinous as this is, one could make the free speech argument. Protestors notified police in advance, obeyed all laws, made their protest from a designated area 1000 feet from the funeral church, and Snyder did not personally see their signs. A constitutional law class at Georgetown University Law School grappled with the case and finally concluded that it was protected. Others put it in the category of yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater.

But what really seems unconscionable to me is that the appeals court went a step further and required Snyder to pay $16,510 in court costs for the defendant. And a Phelps daughter, who is also a lawyer and will argue the case before the Supreme Court, says they will use the money to pay for more protests.

Snyder is determined to carry the fight all the way. And he has many people on his side. Fox News' Bill O'Rielly pledged to pay the $16,510 personally. Financial support is pouring in from all over the country. Snyder plans to use it for legal expenses and donate what's left to veterans' groups.

Mickey Nardo's April 12 blog has a YouTube video from West Virginia, where the Westboro church folks went to protest at miners' funerals. A local crowd of young people staged their own counter-protest rally and drowned out the Phelps band, which soon got in their car and drove away.

This may be one of those cases where being legal doesn't make it right and where the remedy has to be, not judicial, but other citizens exercising their own protected speech in opposition.

But it just ain't right. Not at funerals.

Ralph