Supreme Court rules in favor of Westboro Church

WASHINGTON — In an 8–1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled March 2 that the “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” protestersfrom Westboro Baptist Church have First Amendment rights to protest military funerals.

The majority determined that the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his small church in Topeka, Kansas, had free-speech rights to picket within 300 feet of the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq in 2006. The court’s lone dissenter, Justice Samuel Alito, argued it was wrong for protesters to continue “inflicting severe and lasting emotional injury on an ever growing list of innocent victims.” Legal experts differ on whether Westboro will now be a role model for other religious groups with strong views deemed offensive.