"Tim Daneliuk" wrote in message ...


One day some pilled-out trucker with a stack of alimony demands in his
pocket
is going to turn the wheel and flatten the Phelps clan during one of
their roadside
protests, and I for one won't shed any tears.

Yabut ... violence isn't the right way to solve this problem.

IMO it would solve this particular problem quite nicely. It's not like the
Phelps clan is a franchise operation with branches in every city.

Freedom
of one citizen is always bounded by the freedom of another. We have
a spineless government (particularly of late) that refuses to grasp
this notion.

Legislators climb over each other to pass laws stopping the Phelps clan from
getting near military funerals, the problem isn't the legislative or
executive branches, it is the judicial branch. The courts (usually
correctly) lean towards protecting freedom of speech, but there are still
limitations when a public need is more pressing than an individual one--IMO
this should be one of them. But as the lawyers say, hard cases make bad
law.

Phelps and his mob must be free to peddle their ideas -
however malignant. But I cannot grasp why the various governmental
bodies don't get that the funeral attendees also have co-equal rights.

Because they don't see them as equal, they assume that hurt feelings are not
as important as freedom of speech. In general I agree with that, but I do
feel that this particular speech should not be protected outside the gates
of a cemetery even if I would protect it a quarter of a mile away. We
impose limitations on speech in order to serve compelling public needs, e.g.
discouraging defamation or incitement to violence. I think a case could be
made that the Phelps mutants have ample opportunity to express their views
in places other than in front of grieving relations at a funeral, that their
rights do not depend on protesting outside the cemetery gates. Some laws
that have been passed require them to stay 1,000 feet away, but others
impose a useless 150 foot requirement--I'd make it at least 1,500 feet. If
they want to protest a few blocks away in front of some car wash, fine.
Then the car wash owner can sue them for interfering with his business.