Headlines on Tuesday outraged Americans as the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals announced a decision that a family of a deceased Marine must pay the legal costs of the Westboro Baptist Church. If you are unaware of this story, let me fill in some details.
To call the Westboro Baptist Church “controversial” would be a serious understatement. They are the group that protests funerals of fallen soldiers, claiming God kills American soldiers due to this country’s acceptance of homosexuality. Their protests are repugnant to even the most social conservative among us. They are the fringe of fringe movements.
After they protested the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, a veteran of the Iraq war, Snyder’s family sued the Westboro Church for invasion of privacy, emotional distress and civil conspiracy. They won the lawsuit against the Church, winning a decision of $5 million dollars.
However, the Church appealed and eventually won in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, as the court ruled that the initial judgment violated the Church’s First Amendment rights. The court went on to rule that the Snyder family should pay for the $16,000.00 in legal costs the Church incurred.
Headlines describing this ruling enraged Americans across the country and brought even more attention to the legal fight pitting privacy rights against First Amendment rights.
Every amendment in the Bill of Rights has a legal line that cannot be crossed, yelling ‘Fire!’ in a movie theater, for example. So limits already exist on our most precious rights, and I would imagine that the vast majority of Americans would agree that there should be limits installed to protect the funerals of fallen soldiers. I would certainly agree.
However, for every justifiable legal limit, there are groups like the Westboro Church to push those limits. Shall all funerals be off limits? What constitutes a protest versus a tribute? What if the protest isn’t a socially reprehensible protest, but one of a suspected murderer attending the funeral? I am sure a lawyer could help answer my questions and even invent a few more.
But my point is as simple as it sounds to handle a legal issue like this, it’s never that simple. Trust me, I would love it to be as simple as to send a group this offensive back under a rock, but that’s not exactly how this whole thing works.
The First Amendment can become very complicated, although it seems very simple. The First Amendment guarantees the very freedoms that our Forefathers and Foremothers held most dear. But as patriotic as its origins are, the speech the amendment is called upon to protect is usually the most offensive.
I personally hope we find a way to at least protect the sanctity of the funerals of our fallen heroes. But even in my most optimistic mood, I know that we will be called upon again to face the conflict of answering the question, how free is free speech?
However, seeing what is happening to the families of our fallen soldiers, I am willing to take on that conflict. Frankly, it’s the very least we can do.