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Fred Phelps
The Important Supreme Court Decision You Didn't Hear About Last Week
By Andrew Cohen - Politics DailyIf you think Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church made out well last week before the U.S. Supreme Court, consider the case of Jason Pepper. The confessed former methamphetamine dealer won his own case last week at the high court -- and may not have to go back to prison for his old crime (he was released pending the appeal). More significantly, the court's ruling struck yet another blow against sentencing guidelines. The reason you probably haven't heard much about Pepper is because the decision in his case, Pepper v. United States, came out last Wednesday just a few minutes before the ...
Supreme Court's 8-1 Westboro Ruling -- and Alito's Passionate Dissent
By Andrew Cohen - Politics DailyU.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito likely spoke for millions of Americans Wednesday when he decried the strategy, tactics and motives of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church zealots, who picket military funerals to express their virulent anti-gay views. But on the Court, Justice Alito spoke alone. Related Stories Supreme Court Upholds Westboro Baptist Church's Right to Military Funeral Protests Westboro Church Protestors -- Ignore Them Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Funeral of 9-Year-Old Arizona Shooting Victim Bill Would Ban ...
Fred Phelps' Daughters May Misread Bible but They Know the Law
By Andrea Stone - AOL NewsAfter the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the hate-spewing Westboro Baptist Church has a right to picket military funerals, Shirley Phelps-Roper promised to "double and triple our efforts" to stage anti-gay protests in the most unwelcome places. The 8-1 decision in Snyder v. Phelps means "you can still stand on the streets of doomed America and warn people they have to obey God, that their destruction is eminent," she said in a phone interview Thursday with AOL News. But if Fred Phelps' daughter claimed a heavenly ordained legal victory, few longtime observers of the outcast family from ...
Dissenting Justice: Westboro Ruling Goes Too Far
By Joseph Schuman - AOL NewsWhere should the nation draw the line on free speech? For Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the defense of First Amendment rights expressed by today's majority ruling in the Westboro Baptist Church case goes too far. The 8-1 decision found that the fringe church's hate-filled picketing at the funeral of a Marine corporal killed in Iraq qualified as public discourse protected by the First Amendment. Church members claim soldiers' deaths are God's punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality. Kris Connor, Getty Images Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. was the lone ...
One Family's Fight Against the Westboro Baptist Church
By Theunis Bates - AOL NewsOn March 10, 2006, more than 1,200 people gathered at St. John's Catholic Church in Westminster, Md., to say their farewells to Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. The 20-year-old Marine had died a week earlier, when his Humvee rolled over in western Iraq while he was manning the gun turret. His father, Albert Snyder, later told the Marine Corps Times how beautiful it was to see strangers come out on the streets of Westminster and salute the funeral procession as it drove to a nearby veterans cemetery. "I've never seen a funeral like this in my life," Snyder said. "It was just amazing to ...
Westboro's 'Church of Hate' Leader Once Championed Civil Rights
By Mara Gay - AOL NewsFred Phelps has been testing America's laws -- and patience -- for years, long before the Supreme Court today gave his anti-gay church group the OK to protest its gospel of hate at military funerals. But in the beginning, Phelps, now the 80-year-old pastor of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, had a very different cause -- civil rights. Before the bombastic, Kansas-based preacher began picketing high-profile funerals with signs like, "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," he was a prominent civil-rights attorney known for waging successful anti-discrimination suits in ...
Westboro Court Decision Pits Free Speech Against Common Decency
By Andrea Stone - AOL NewsWASHINGTON -- Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church may have won their case in the U.S. Supreme Court today, but not even the most ardent advocates of free speech are rejoicing. "On a personal level, I can't imagine a single person in this country who doesn't feel the pain of this father" whose Marine son's funeral was picketed by the hate-spewing church, said Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center. "But a free and open marketplace of ideas requires us to hear positions and views that we don't like and which deeply offend us." The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that ...
Supreme Court Sides With Westboro Baptist Church; Twitter Reluctantly Agrees
By Torie Bosch - AOL NewsWho ever said that free speech would be easy? Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, a small group, made up mostly of members of the Phelps family, that stages protests at military funerals (and other places). The case, Snyder v. Phelps, was filed by the father of a fallen soldier, whose funeral was protested by Westboro. "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," ...
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Military Funeral Protesters
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount anti-gay protests outside military funerals, despite the pain they cause grieving families. The court voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The decision upheld an appeals court ruling that threw out a $5 million judgment to the father of a dead Marine who sued church members after they picketed his son's funeral. Nicholas Kamm, AFP/Getty Images Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas church known for its vehement anti-gay ...
Ariz. Passes Law to Block Protests at Victims' Funerals
By Mara Gay - AOL NewsArizona lawmakers today passed emergency legislation to bar Westboro Baptist Church members from picketing the funerals of the Tucson shooting victims, and outraged residents vowed to protect mourners from any protesters. The measure, passed unanimously by the House and Senate, prohibits protests within 300 feet of funeral sites. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer tonight. Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images Members of Westboro Baptist Church, some of whom are shown here demonstrating outside the Supreme Court on Oct. 6, had planned to picket the funerals of the Arizona ...
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