Westboro

The Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 in favor of Phelps in Snyder v. Phelps today. Justice Samuel Alito was the lone dissenter.

As you may recall, the Snyder family was claiming the tort of intentional infliction of emotion distress against the Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church for their picketing of a fallen soldier's funeral.

A ruling in favor of Snyder would have opened access to a slippery slope where any speech that could be considered offensive would have been subject to that tort. Instead, the ruling was in favor of Phelps which essentially applies the same principles as Hustler v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988) to private individuals.

Oral arguments will be heard today by the Supreme Court in Snyder v. Phelps. While I do not agree with the actions of Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church, I believe a ruling in favor of the Snyder family would push us even farther and faster down a slippery slope toward extreme limits on our freedom of speech as protected by the First Amendment.

You probably know who Westboro Baptist Church is. They are the group that protests at many military funerals and are best known for their "God Hates Fags" signs. They also recently protested Comic-Con, which resulted in some pretty hilarious counter protests by conference attendees (video included below for your minute of laughter).

It looks like the Supreme Court will hear the Snyder v. Phelps funeral picketing case.  In case you don't know, the Phelps family is who runs Westboro Baptist Church.  You might know them better for their "God Hates Fags" pickets or "Santa Claus Will Send You To Hell" video.

In September of 2009, the Fourth Circuit reversed a previous $5 million intentional infliction of emotional distress verdict against the Phelpsians.  While I don't believe that what the Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church does at soldiers' funerals (among other places) is right, I do believe that the Fourth Circuit was correct in their ruling.