Should Westboro Baptist Church Be Allowed To Protest Military Funerals?

Imagine: no black rights, no women’s rights, no gay marriage, no freedom, no opinions. If we weren’t able to exercise our first amendment by stating our opinion, none of these rights would’ve existed. This is why I agree with the Supreme Court's decision because Westboro protesters addressed matters of public import, on public property, in a peaceful manner, and in full compliance with the guidance of local officials. As long as the protesters abide by these actions, the Westboro Baptist Church should be able to protest military funerals. The Westboro Baptist Church is an congregation that is strictly homophobic and protests places and people who are homosexulally accepting. In this case, they were protesting a military funeral because they believe that the soldier who died, died because America is accepting of gays. They are allowed to protest because under the first amendment, they have the right to state their opinion peacefully.

After years have gone by, courts have decided that certain types of speech are not protected. These unprotected types of speech include threats, child pornography, and fighting words. Fighting words are words that can incite conflict. Some say that what the Westboro Baptist Church was saying was fighting words. However, anyone can consider anything a fighting word if the people using them are opposing your beliefs. This is why I don’t think that fighting words were actually used and why they should be protected. Public debate topics such as gay rights should also be protected by the first amendment because one side of the story just because the judges don’t agree with what they are saying. The opinion/belief cannot be taken into account when the Supreme Court is making a decision, only the