No First Amendment Rights Exist for Funeral Protesting

Fred Phelps is one terrific guy. Years ago he gained notoriety by protesting at the funeral of a gay man, killed in a horrific way simply because he was, indeed, a gay man. Good ol' Freddie carted around intellectually stimulating signs like "God hates fags" and couldn't contain his glee at the results of this hate crime.

Now Freddie raids funerals of our soldiers, gleeful at their death because, as he asserts, they died because God is punishing this country for tolerating "fags."

I am reading a lot commentary and thoughts from a lot of people angry at Freddie's antics. But almost everyone can't spew out this type of phrase fast enough: "we need to respect his first amendment rights and let him protest, even if he is a jerk."

Bull.

Funerals are usually private affairs. They are usually conducted with the assistance of a private funeral home and lead by the representative of a local house of worship. They end at a cemetery, usually owned by a private group or society.

This man has no first amendment rights to crash a funeral, nor do the people of his "church." If Freddie wants to assert that "God hates fags" and "I thank God for the roadside bombs killing soldiers," and people are so concerned that he be able to express these opinions because of the first amendment, then let him say what he wants in front of any TV camera crew. But this man has absolutely no first amendment freedom to interfere with a private funeral on private property and insult a grieving family. Shame on the all the people in America who worry more about Phelps' inexistent rights to protest at a funeral than about the families of our brave soldiers... or the families who lost their sons to violence against gays.

Fred Phelps , First Amendment , 1st Amendment