SCOTUS to rule on protests at military funeralsFollow

Disgusting behaviour, but I still think their right to do so should be upheld.

I think they do have the right to protest there, and hope that the Supreme Court upholds it. I also believe those ex-military bikers have the right to stand in front of them and walk towards them with very large sticks, accidentally trampling them in the process should they fail to yield.

I think it depends on the funeral. If you are having a private function on public land (like a park for example). You can sue someone for disrupting your function. I'm not up on the details of this case, but I'd guess that it has to do with it being a military funeral. If it's funded by tax dollars, and is held on public land, it may be considered a fully "public" event and therefore anyone has as much right to speak there as the people running the ceremony.

I think that's bogus, but you have to consider the larger implications. The same rules apply to things like town hall meetings, public protests, and any of an assortment of venues where we assume and expect to be able to express our own free speech. Who gets to decide who speaks? I think there ought to be an exception for something like a funeral, but we do have to be careful with how we legally frame the issue as well...

Where do I sign?

I'm seriously considering making a sign along the lines of "I want to fUCk Fred Phelps in his tight puckered ***" and follow them everywhere they go.

You know, it shouldn't be too hard to find their protest schedule and pass such a sign along to cohorts in various cities. Same sign, different person at every protest? They'd freak.

Call me a crackpot if you like, but for me it should be illegal to have an organised protest at ANY funeral.

Time and a place and all that.

Isn't he mummified or some such?

It is Lenin, you're right.

I'd carry a sign at Stalin's funeral. It would read, "Quit Stalin".

It disturbs me that I agree with gbaji.

Arguably you could pursue that as disturbing the peace, but again it depends on the venue.

I'm filing this in my "Samira, the Many Mysteries of" file.

A funeral is for all intents and purposes a religious ceremony, various athiest exceptions aside. If nothing else they should be able to get them on some sort of interference with freedom to express religious beliefs thing. Pretty clear precidence on that one that if your religion and some other religion considetr the same spot holy and you don't play well together, you schedule different days.

amen !!