Supreme court case: Protests at funerals

• Time wrote on 2010-10-06 22:34
  ]

  SMYRNA, Tenn. — Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq. The church members were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the church members cars’ down a highway, waving flags and screaming “God bless America.” “My husband is over there, so I’m here to show my support,” 41-year-old Connie Ditmore said as she waved and American flag and as tears came to her eyes. “To do this at a funeral is disrespectful of a family, no matter what your beliefs are.”

  
  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9102443/
  
  

  You want to get your friends interested in the law and the U.S. Supreme Court? Today is the day, because outside of a re-hearing of Roe v. Wade, you probably won't get a more mainstream-audience-friendly case than that of the father suing the anti-gay church protestors who picketed his son's funeral. The protesters, all affiliated with a tiny family-run church in Kansas, claim U.S. military casualties come as God's vengeance for America's failure to condemn homosexuality and other sins. They attend the funerals of soldiers, including that of Matthew Snyder, and bring signs blaring messages such as "God Hates the USA" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."
  

  
  

  And what a hearing it was, according to rundowns in the Wall Street Journal and by our own Tony Mauro at the National Law Journal. The church, represented by the daughter of its pastor, repeated its argument that the First Amendment protects its right to protest. Snyder's side has argued the First Amendment does not give someone the right to essentially crash a funeral in order to promote a political agenda.

  
  Anti-Gay Funeral Protesters Hit the Supreme Court
  
  What do you think of this? Does the First amendment make this okay?
• Phunkie wrote on 2010-10-06 22:39
  I know we got the 1st Amendment, but I wouldn't want anyone protesting my loved one's funeral, even if those protesters harbored negative feelings towards my loved one.
  
  I think funerals should be respected, be it George W. Bush's or Kim Jong-il's.
• Time wrote on 2010-10-06 22:40

  Quote from Phunkie;177555:

  I know we got the 1st Amendment, but I wouldn't want anyone protesting my loved one's funeral, even if that person or group harbored evil feelings towards my loved one.
  
  I think funerals should be respected, be it George W. Bush's or Kim Jong-il's.

  
  Yeah, thats pretty much how I think about it, no matter how much I hated a person in life, no way am I going to ruin their funeral for the people who liked him in life....I mean, you have to have some respect for others....
• Chillax wrote on 2010-10-06 22:41
  Was it a public funeral?
  
  /Too lazy to do background reading.
• starpaw7 wrote on 2010-10-06 22:51
  No; there is a thing called decency which they fail to have.
  
  
  
  I would think that disrupting a funeral would be considered sacrilegious :what:
• Spartaaaaa wrote on 2010-10-06 22:53
  As long as the protests are peaceful and orderly, I don't really see the problem. If gays can have their demonstrations, so can anti-gays. This is America after all you know.
• Phunkie wrote on 2010-10-06 22:56

  Quote from Spartaaaaa;177577:

  As long as the protests are peaceful and orderly, I don't really see the problem. If gays can have their demonstrations, so can anti-gays. This is America after all you know.

  
  
  Nah, it's not about just gays.
  
  It's about having decency, be it a gay person or a public figure that was hated by everyone.
  
  R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me. ♪
• Time wrote on 2010-10-06 22:56

  Quote from Spartaaaaa;177577:

  As long as the protests are peaceful and orderly, I don't really see the problem. If gays can have their demonstrations, so can anti-gays. This is America after all you know.

  
  
  

  They attend the funerals of soldiers, including that of Matthew Snyder, and bring signs blaring messages such as "God Hates the USA" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."

  
  
  Other signs
  

  [Image: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2010/10/04/PH2010100404374.jpg]

  
  

  [Image: http://thechuckler.com/wp-content/uploads/retro/522blog_baptistchurch.gif]
• Arsik wrote on 2010-10-06 23:01

  Quote from Spartaaaaa;177577:

  As long as the protests are peaceful and orderly, I don't really see the problem. If gays can have their demonstrations, so can anti-gays. This is America after all you know.

  
  
  There's a difference between holding a civil anti-gay rally and crashing a soldier's funeral, disturbing the family that are mourning their loved one, and then making the family seem like bad guys because the father went after the protesters in a fit of rage, all on the basis that God decided to kill that one soldier because homosexuality is still around. If the church held the protest in a different area than the cemetery that the soldier was being buried in, then there wouldn't be any problems what so ever. But when you march down to the church and cemetery, egg on and harass the family of the soldier, and then get pissed because someone actually retaliated to their actions, it doesn't exactly give Christianity a good name.
  
  The actions that this particular church really is no different than Muslim extremists that burn American flags and chant "Death to America", because while both are extremists for their particular religion, it really does press badly on the rest of the world that doesn't follow that religion, and kinda makes people question if they actually know what their religious text was talking about half the time. :/
• Spartaaaaa wrote on 2010-10-06 23:02

  Quote from Timexpo;177585:

  Other signs

  
  
  Even if the messages on the signs are very blunt, and offensive to many people, they still have the right to protest as long as they're not getting violent or committing any crimes.
  
  "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech... or of the right to peaceably assemble..." -1st Amendment
  
  There, problem solved.
• Phunkie wrote on 2010-10-06 23:03

  Quote from Spartaaaaa;177595:

  Even if the messages on the signs are very blunt, and offensive to many people, they still have the right to protest as long as they're not getting violent or committing any crimes.
  
  "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech... or of the right to peaceably assemble..." -1st Amendment
  
  There, problem solved.

  
  
  They shouldn't have that right when it involves funerals or burials.
  
  Should be revoked, for everyone.
  
  Because that's just disrespectful and dirty.
• Spartaaaaa wrote on 2010-10-06 23:15

  Quote from Phunkie;177599:

  They shouldn't have that right when it involves funerals or burials.
  
  Should be revoked, for everyone.
  
  Because that's just disrespectful and dirty.

  
  
  Of course it's disrespectful, however, that does not change the fact that it was their constitutional right to do so (provided they do not commit and crimes in the process). What people have to understand is that their feelings are not sacred, and that they do not have the right to be automatically respected by everyone! That is a whole lot of wishy washy thinking that is going to cause a lot trouble for you in life. If you want respect from disrespectful people, you're gonna have to earn it whether or not you think they're right or wrong!
• Axx wrote on 2010-10-06 23:19

  They shouldn't have that right when it involves funerals or burials.
  
  Should be revoked, for everyone.

  
  It's just far too easy to spread that to less mainstream ideas. Make no mistake, this church has been doing this for quite a while, and they know exactly where the legal line is and basically strode right up to it.
• Time wrote on 2010-10-06 23:21

  Quote from Spartaaaaa;177577:

  As long as the protests are peaceful and orderly, I don't really see the problem. If gays can have their demonstrations, so can anti-gays. This is America after all you know.

  
  
  

  Quote from Spartaaaaa;177624:

  Of course it's disrespectful, however, that does not change the fact that it was their constitutional right to do so (provided they do not commit and crimes in the process). What people have to understand is that their feelings are not sacred, and that they do not have the right to be automatically respected by everyone! That is a whole lot of wishy washy thinking that is going to cause a lot trouble for you in life. If you want respect from disrespectful people, you're gonna have to earn it whether or not you think they're right or wrong!

  
  
  Isnt this harassment/disturbing the peace though?
  
  And if we change out the whole sexual part, lets say, and it was white people only, protesting at a colored persons funeral, what would happen then?
• Zid wrote on 2010-10-06 23:23

  Quote from Spartaaaaa;177595:

  Even if the messages on the signs are very blunt, and offensive to many people, they still have the right to protest as long as they're not getting violent or committing any crimes.
  
  "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech... or of the right to peaceably assemble..." -1st Amendment
  
  There, problem solved.

  
  
  Would you like it if a pro-gay protest forcibly barged into the church you go to in the middle of your family member's funeral Mass, waving signs that said "Because of anti-gay groups, this person died"?
  
  No matter how permitted it is, according to society, it's indecent, it's inappropriate, it's disrespectful.