"Why Fred Phelps's Free Speech Rights Should Matter to Us All"

The Westboro Baptist Church deeply tests my support of free speech.  It seems particularly ugly to target funerals with hateful speech.  This powerful first-hand account from Chris Hampton of the ACLU's LGBT Rights Project reminded me that we must protect the constitutional principle of free speech for all people, no matter how painful or difficult:

Why Fred Phelps's Free Speech Rights Should Matter to Us All

"The first time I saw those signs, with their vivid neon colors and crude images of stick figures, was 16 years ago. "Fags Die, God Laughs." "No Tears for Queers." "God Hates Fags." Like most people seeing a Westboro Baptist Church picket for the first time, I was shocked, then outraged. It happened at the funeral of a friend who had died of AIDS. Seeing those signs left me in tears."

Today's Portland Press Herald ran a Washington Post article titled "Does a funeral trump free speech?"  The ACLU hopes the answer is no in the Supreme Court case of Snyder v. Phelps.  We agree with Maine Attorney General Janet Mills quoted in today's paper that the Westboro Baptist Church is "offensive and outrageous, but the First Amendment does not allow us to distinguish between polite speech and hateful or outrageous speech."