[BITList] dishearlened

[CT's]

does anyone need further proof that common sense no longer has any part in the US supreme court’s decisions?

unbelievable decision for these holy rollers..........................

“The wrath of God is pouring onto this land. Rather than trying to shut us up, use your platforms to tell this nation to mourn for your sins."

ct

Vets' families disheartened by ruling allowing anti-gay protests at military funerals
11:36 PM, Mar. 2, 2011  |  
21 Comments 
 
The 2005 funeral of Jeremy Doyle, Martinsville, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, was among those that drew protesters from Westboro Baptist Church. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the group's incendiary protests are protected by the First Amendment. / Rob Goebel / The Star 2005 file photo
  a.. Parents of two Indiana soldiers killed while fighting in Iraq fear Wednesday's Supreme Court decision in favor of military funeral protesters will encourage the protesters to step up their attention-grabbing efforts.
The court, citing the First Amendment, ruled 8-1 in favor of Westboro Baptist Church, a small, Topeka, Kan.-based group that has staged incendiary anti-gay protests at military funerals, including those of Hoosiers Jonathan Pfender and Jeremy Doyle.

Doyle, Martinsville, and Pfender, Evansville, were killed by roadside bombs in Iraq, Doyle in August 2005, Pfender four months later.

"Something is not quite right here," said Sandy Doyle, Jeremy Doyle's stepmother, upon hearing of the court's decision. "Now that they've got this under their belt, my concern is (Westboro) is going to step up their protests. And more people are going to have to live what we had to live through."

Peggy Jo Hammond, Pfender's mother, said the decision is "sad" and suggests that the protesters are "more important than the soldiers who gave their lives."

Jimmie L. Foster, the American Legion's national commander, in a written statement said he and his fellow legionnaires "appreciate the sanctity of freedom of speech" but are "very disappointed that any American would believe it appropriate to express such sentiments as those expressed by the Westboro Baptist Church, especially at the funeral of an American hero who died defending the very freedoms this church abuses."

Wednesday's ruling does not affect Indiana's state law, passed in early 2006 and aimed at Westboro, that places restrictions on how close funeral protesters may be to a funeral site.

Westboro, its membership composed mostly of a single family named Phelps, uses the high-profile funerals to spread its view that soldiers' deaths are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of gay culture.

Neither Doyle nor Pfender were gay, their families said. But at their funerals, Westboro members held up signs with anti-gay messages and slogans, such as "Thank God for roadside bombs!" that applauded the soldiers' deaths.

Westboro attorney and church member Margie Phelps, who argued the case at the Supreme Court, said she expected the outcome.

"We read the law. We follow the law. The only way for a different ruling is to shred the First Amendment," she said.

She also offered her church's view of the decision. "I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but here's the core point: The wrath of God is pouring onto this land. Rather than trying to shut us up, use your platforms to tell this nation to mourn for your sins."

Westboro members have protested in Indiana about two dozen times, only a fraction of the military funerals for Indiana's war dead. To date, 167 Hoosiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But they have threatened to protest often, and the chance they'll make good on their threat typically causes a flurry of precautionary planning. About 40 police officers worked Jeremy Doyle's funeral, 39 of them solely because of Westboro.

In its ruling Wednesday, the court upheld an appeals court decision that threw out a $5 million judgment a lower court had awarded to a Maryland man whose son was killed in Iraq in 2006. Westboro protested at Matthew Snyder's funeral, and his father, Albert Snyder, sued, claiming the protesters had intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

He won an $11 million settlement. Later, the judge reduced the amount.

Westboro appealed that decision and won.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the court. Justice Samuel Alito dissented.

Alito said Westboro members have countless ways to express their belief that the deaths of U.S. soldiers are God's way of punishing the nation for its tolerance of homosexuality.

"It does not follow, however, that they may intentionally inflict severe emotional injury on private persons at a time of intense emotional sensitivity by launching vicious verbal attacks that make no contribution to public debate," Alito wrote.

Roberts said free speech rights of the First Amendment shield the funeral protesters, noting that they obeyed police directions and were 1,000 feet from the church.

In the years since Westboro began protesting at soldiers' funerals, 43 states have passed laws that keep protesters at a distance from mourners. Indiana's is 500 feet.

Wednesday's court ruling does not threaten those laws, Roberts said in writing for the majority. He noted that Maryland's distance restriction law was not in effect at the time of Snyder's funeral, "so we have no occasion to consider . . . whether it or other similar regulations are constitutional."

Star reporter Jon Murray and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Call Star reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043.
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