Sunday, July 23, 2006

ACLU sues on behalf of funeral picketers

The American Civil Liberties Union will back Wichita minister Fred Phelps in his attempt to get Missouri's new funeral protest ban overturned.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in U. S. District Court in Jefferson City, the ACLU says the ban deprives Phelps from being able to exercise his First Amendment right of freedom of speech.
The ACLU is asking that the law be declared unconstitutional and for an injunction to keep it from being enforced.
This is one of those slippery slope questions. Yes, on the face of it how could anyone support a hateful bigot like Phelps? He and his band of demented followers protest at funerals because of what they perceive as the United States' support for gays and lesbians.
Why should the final goodbyes for soldiers who gave their lives for their country be marred by these people?
The answer is simple...they shouldn't be, but a law banning protest was never the proper approach; it was simply a heartfelt, sympathetic reaction on behalf of survivors and veterans. Unfortunately, the law has also served to keep Rev. Phelps in a limelight that should have been mercifully short-lived.
Enforcement of laws already on the books, including trespassing and disturbing the peace, as well as working with law enforcement and veterans groups to help shield the survivors from these lunatics would have been the better way to go.
Though I disagree with the ACLU on some issues, particularly those involving student-led school prayer, the organization sees clearly what its detractors often fail to see. It is a short road from halting speech that we all realize is hateful to simply halting speech with which we disagree.
When critics jump on the ACLU, they often refer to the organization's defense of the American Nazi Party when it asked for a permit to parade in Skokie, Ill., a community with a high proportion of Holocaust survivors in the late 1970s. A Supreme Court ruling gave the Nazis what they wanted...but the rally never took place.
Laws were already on the books to protect grieving family members from Rev. Phelps. The last thing we need is for this man's legacy to include the erosion of the very amendment that makes the U. S. a shining symbol of freedom.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The “slippery slope” argument is an easy copout. Life is a slippery slope, we are always setting limits between individual freedom and community interest. It takes thought and it takes care but we can balance liberty with civility, to say otherwise is slippery slope as well, the only difference is that the slide is toward anarchy rather then fascism.

It has long been recognized that while the 1st Amendment forbids laws aimed at outlawing TYPES speech it does NOT prevent laws that limit the “time, manner and place” of the speech. In other words, you can say whatever you want but not necessary anytime and anywhere you want.

There are no shortages of public forums available for responsible individuals (or cranks) to espouse their views. A law telling them that a funeral is not an appropriate forum is not a step toward despotism but rather an expression of common sense.

I would agree with John Stuart Mill’s theory that the best response to bad speech is good speech (rather then attempts to outlaw the speech). However, it seems to me that the goal here is not to limit the content of what this person is saying but merely to restrict him from crashing private funerals to say it. He can still say what he wants to say on the sidewalks in front of the courthouse, in the city park, in front of the White House, in a Blog, or even get a permit and have a parade down main street, he just can't screech it at someone who is trying to say goodby to their child . . . I think the Republic can survive that assault on his liberty.

Anonymous said...

I am so confused...I thought Fred Phelps hated anything and everything to do with homosexuals. Now he is letting himself be defended by an organization that also defends homosexual rights and freedoms. One would think he would shun the ACLU as he does everyone and everything else, including his own country.
We can now be completely convinced that he is a quack, I always thought so but now I know he is.

Anonymous said...

People who picket at funerals are the bottom of the barrel. Total scum.