The Wacko Reverend Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church (famous for protesting gays’ and more recently soldiers’ funerals) has lost an 11 million dollar lawsuit to a father who’s son’s funeral was picketed.
I think you can’t really argue with the fact that Phelps and his church are awful people. But as is mentioned in the end of this post there are real free speech issues here. Abhorrent speech is often protected on the first amendment and I don’t exactly see this wouldn’t qualify. (I guess this would hinge on if the funeral was a public event and exactly where the picketers were)
What I’m more concerned with is that I don’t think Churches are very easily made to pay settlements. I don’t know how many assets the church has right now, but it’s possible it has very few. I don’t know if it’s possible to force Phelps or his membership pay for the church’s debt, but I doubt it. When the Christian Coalition was accused of using it’s money for political purposes all it had to do was reform under a slightly different name. Also if a wacko doesn’t want to pay a civil penalty, it’s unlikely anyone can make them.
Filed under: United States | 1 Comment
Tags: Fred Phelps, hate speech, Westboro Baptist Church
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Do a little Google searching. Shirley Phelps Roper has an illegimate child, a fact which goes to considerable lengths to hide from public view.