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October 25, 2005
Protecting First Amendment in the Difficult Cases
On a several occasions, I have written about the hateful lowlife Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church. These are the folks that express their hatred of gays by, among other ridiculous and evil things, protesting at the funerals of dead soldiers. Now Indiana State Senator Brent Steele is proposing a change in the law to make protesting at a military funeral a felony.
While I have expressed my distaste for the Evil Rev. Phelps and his flock, I agree with Ed Brayton that the change in the law proposed by Senator Steele is wrong. These folks have a Constitutional right to express their hate and it is exactly in these cases that protecting the First Amendment is both the most difficult and the most necessary. If the right of free speech is not defended in the hard cases, it is not worth much in the easy ones.
You can read about the proposed law in the Indiana Barrister and on the WRTV Indianapolis website. Go read what Ed says also. While he supports their Constitutional rights, he might just test those rights under the "fighting words" exception.
Posted by DuaneSmith at October 25, 2005 07:56 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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