This Should Make Kentonio Happy (Funeral Picketing)

[SlowwHand]

OK, Lorizael. What about the rights of the family to converse and conduct the ceremony in peace? Quote all the crap that you want.

[MrFun]

It should include all funerals.

Freedom of speech can have sane limitations.

Exactly. There would not be any law of this kind against funeral picketing if it was only civilian ******s' funerals that were being picketed.

[Lorizael]

OK, Lorizael. What about the rights of the family to converse and conduct the ceremony in peace? Quote all the crap that you want.

That's still just an issue of common decency. Yes, it would be great if no one wanted to be an *******, but there are *******s. The solution in a country that operates under the rule of law, if you don't want *******s, is to pass laws restricting the behavior of said *******s. But if your law violates rights protected by the Constitution, your only option is to change the Constitution.

[The Mad Monk]

An amendment for common decency shouldn't be required.

We had something close to that, an attempt to criminalize distasteful behavior at the constitutional level.

Prohibition didn't work out too well.

[The Mad Monk]

What is the difference between Westboro Baptist and OWS?

Frame it in a way that will pass constitutional muster.

[Tuberski]

OK, Lorizael. What about the rights of the family to converse and conduct the ceremony in peace? Quote all the crap that you want.

How would their free speech be any different? There is no right to converse in peace, which also makes it ok to rev motorcycles while hatemongers try to speak.

ACK!

[Elok]

Biking by with a mask on and spraying the protesters with Super Soakers full of week-old urine is probably considered assault or something, but I bet it'd be hard to get a conviction on that.

[kentonio]

What is the difference between Westboro Baptist and OWS?

Frame it in a way that will pass constitutional muster.

Which is funny because the OWS folks seemed to spend quite a lot of time getting peppersprayed and dragged into vans by the cops.

[Elok]

Spending weeks protesting at a single site and not being organized by a former lawyer who knows exactly how far you can go will do that.

EDIT: Also, OWS formed much larger groups and were not, as far as anyone can tell, organized at all. As a number of very large, disparate groups of totally independent fellow-travelers, the odds of their not getting in trouble were pretty slim.

[Uncle Sparky]

... and one, no matter how distasteful, is a Chistian church. I'm sure if a small group of atheists tried to disrupt any funeral in the USA, they would be arrested, convicted, and jailed.

[Elok]

...yeaahhh, you don't actually understand how we work down here, Sparky. The Armed Forces basically IS our deity--it's one of our many problems. Also, those people hate absolutely everyone, including themselves. The fact that they're nominally Christian gives them no cred, only makes them more distasteful. If they were atheists, they would be socially useful as an example of how turning against God makes you a raging dickweed. As they are, they're somewhat more embarrassing than the KKK.

[The Mad Monk]

From Wiki:

In an 8–1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Phelps on March 2, 2011. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion stating: "What Westboro said, in the whole context of how and where it chose to say it, is entitled to 'special protection' under the First Amendment and that protection cannot be overcome by a jury finding that the picketing was outrageous."[119] Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter, said Snyder wanted only to "bury his son in peace". Instead, Alito said, the protesters "brutally attacked" Matthew Snyder to attract public attention. "Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case," he said.

Given the sole dissenter was Alito, and the language used in the decision, I sincerely doubt a law will ever be crafted finely enough to pass scrutiny.

That wiki entry is something else, BTW.

[Uncle Sparky]

Yes, I understand that Cheney was a minor deity and the military can do no wrong - that is what private contractors are for nowadays.

But do you really believe that if a small group of radical atheists loudly picketed funerals (not only military) over several states, proclaiming "burial is wormfood, souls do not exist", that they wouldn't be charged?

[The Mad Monk]

As they are, they're somewhat more embarrassing than the KKK.

...and in other news, the WBS was counter-protested by the KKK.

[KrazyHorse]

... and one, no matter how distasteful, is a Chistian church. I'm sure if a small group of atheists tried to disrupt any funeral in the USA, they would be arrested, convicted, and jailed.

You're a ******.