Should Harassing the Families of Dead Soldiers Be Protected Free Speech?
“Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” “God Hates Fags.” “Thank God for 9/11.” Those are just a few of the signs that Fred Phelps and the members of his Kansas Westboro Baptist Church held up high during their protest at the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder in 2006. Snyder gave his life for our country in Iraq. He was only 20 years old when he died. Offensive speech about Snyder was also posted on the church’s website (which has the url not of the church’s name, but of “god hates fags”) proclaiming that it was the fault of Snyder’s parents that he died in Iraq because they’d divorced and their son was a target for God’s punishment because of that. So the question for the Supreme Court is whether those protests and web content are protected free speech or whether it’s action aimed toward private citizens that doesn’t deserve Constitutional protection. Snyder’s family says he wasn’t gay. Phelps has said his church protests military funerals, whether the service people were gay or
