The anti-gay hate-mongers of the Westboro Baptist Church said today that they plan to continue demonstrating after winning a Supreme Court ruling, and will even increase the amount of protests they stage. The 8-1 decision in favor of the WBC, was the latest in a series of rulings that, as Chief Justice John Roberts said in his opinion for the court, protects “even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.” The justices upheld an appeals court ruling that dismissed a $5 million judgment for the father of a dead Marine, who sued church members after they picketed his son’s funeral.
The Kansas-based fundamentalist hate group, which has no affiliation with the actual Baptist church, has about 70 members – most of them relatives of pastor Fred Phelps Sr.
“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and – as it did here – inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker,” Roberts said.