"Simply put, the church members had the right to be where they were." Chief Justice John Roberts defending the First Amendment rights of the Westboro Baptist Church in Snyder v Phelps
The Court ruled 8-1 that Phelps has the right to protest on public property. However awful and hurtful the Westboro people are, the First Amendment applies here and the Supremes did the right thing. Ultimately, if they'll defend the speech rights of people as morally reprehensible as Westboro, then they'll easily defend my speech rights, too. That's comforting.
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin continues to bungle the First Amendment. She has repeatedly insisted that anyone who disagrees with her is somehow restricting her First Amendment rights, even though the amendment is specific and explicit about not allowing the government to restrict free speech rights. The government. Not me. Not Shannyn Moore. Not the people who petitioned to have Dr. Laura fired. The government. Read the First Amendment, Sarah. Seriously. I know reading hurts your brain, but give it a shot.
Instead of, you know, reading the First Amendment, she tweeted this about yesterday's decision:
Common sense & decency absent as wacko "church" allowed hate msgs spewed@ soldiers' funerals but we can't invoke God's name in public square
So now she wants government, specifically the Supreme Court, to silence peaceful protesters who aren't breaking any laws (except the laws of good taste).
Put another way: people who criticize her and Dr. Laura? Unconstitutional! Government restriction of free speech? Constitutional! The speech clause of the First Amendment, however, says the exact opposite thing. Palin appears to be opposed to the First Amendment while suggesting she's in favor of it. Yes, the contradictions of a dumbstupid.
Think about it. Sarah Palin, who has repeatedly botched -- and obviously so -- the meaning of the First Amendment, has the audacity to school eight of the nine Supreme Court justices with a poorly-written lesson on the very thing she's repeatedly botched: the First Amendment. Palin, who is clearly and always wrong about the First Amendment, thinks she knows more than almost the entire Supreme Court of the United States. Ego, ego, ego, ego. There's nothing worse than an idiot with an ego.