The Westboro Decision

The miserable, execrable, demons of Westboro Baptist Church won a decision in the Supreme Court today that guarantees them the right to continue to mount their loathsome protests in the vicinity of funerals of fallen service members.  The conduct of these hateful lumps of DNA is about as reprehensible as it gets, and there is no place in a civil society for this kind of demonstration.

But the Supreme Court was right to reach the decision it did.

Loathsome, but Legal

By an 8-1 margin (Justice Alito in dissent), the Court (with the Chief writing the majority opinion) ruled that while there was no societal benefit to the speech Westboro practices, its elimination would be injurious to free-speech rights.  It is regrettable that they reached this decision, though the only thing more regrettable would have been for them to rule the other way. 

I am struck by Justice Alito's dissent.  I agree with virtually everything he says on a human level--but when it comes right down to it, there just isn't a reason to prohibit their speech that passes Constitutional muster.