Should protests be allowed outside funerals for fallen soldiers?

It is already illegal in Maine, but the Supreme Court is entering an emotionally charged dispute between the grieving father of a Marine who died in Iraq and the anti-gay protesters who picket military funerals with inflammatory messages like "Thank God for dead soldiers."The court agreed Monday to consider whether the protesters' message, no matter how provocative or upsetting, is protected by the First Amendment or limited by the competing privacy and religious rights of the mourners.The justices will hear an appeal from a Marine's father to reinstate a $5 million verdict against the protesters after they picketed outside his son's funeral in Maryland four years ago. Members of a Kansas-based church have picketed military funerals to spread their belief that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.The protest lawsuit stemmed from picketing by members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., outside the funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Md. Snyder died in March 2006 when his Humvee overturned.Maine passed a law making such protests illegal in the state after the group showed up outside the funeral of Angel Rosa, a soldier from South Portland who had been killed in Iraq back in 2007.

Yes
No