FREE SPEECH CAN GET DIRTY!
by Steve Fair
Oklahoma State Senator Josh Brecheen, (R-Coalgate) and State Representative Dustin Roberts, (R-Durant) authored Senate Bill #406 which lengthens the distance that protesters at memorial services or funerals can picket. It also shortens the length of time they can protest. The bill restricts picketers from protesting to 1,000 feet from the funeral property line. The bill also states that the protest cannot convene for up to two hours before the funeral begins and for two hours after the funeral ends.
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“Mocking the deaths of others is irreprehensible, but the Supreme Court’s ruling protecting funeral protests has given groups like the Westboro Church more fuel in their campaign of hate,” Brecheen said. “After that ruling, the Westboro Church said they’d increase their protests four fold; and with our state only hours from their headquarters, we needed to strengthen our funeral picketing law to protect grieving families from further emotional harm from these heartless, misguided people.”
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Roberts, a Navy veteran, said, “I got accustomed to seeing the protestors outside of the military bases in which I served. War is an ugly thing in which we all are entitled an opinion. This bill was authored to protect those that are grieving the loss of a family member or friend- to give them the freedom to honor the deceased. It is designed to protect the funeral goers and those that are picketing from potential dangers.”
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Protesting a funeral for political purposes is an abhorrent and disgusting practice," Governor Fallin said at the bill's signing. "While such distasteful protests have been ruled constitutionally protected and cannot be legally prohibited, this legislation will help protect grieving families from people who are looking to exploit their suffering."
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SB #406 pertains to all funeral services, not just military ones although that is the main focus of the Westboro Church protests. The new provisions will go into effect November 1, 2011. Similar legislation has passed in several state legislatures all targeted to this same group.
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The Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka, Kansas has been demonstrating at funerals for years- most notably at services for U.S. military service members killed in combat overseas - to condemn America's acceptance of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. They have been ridiculed, condemned and berated be virtually everyone wherever they go and appear to relish the attention. They have filed numerous lawsuits (and won) after their constitutional rights were violated by some law enforcement group attempting to protect the privacy of a grieving family.
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After Matthew Snyder was killed in Iraq in 2006, Westboro picketed the fallen lance corporal’s funeral in Maryland. His dad, Albert Snyder sued the group, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court where in March 2011 he lost in an 8-1 decision.
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“Speech is powerful,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain. We cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker.” Instead, the national commitment to free speech, he said, requires protection of “even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.” Roberts suggested that laws creating “buffer’ zones, which is what SB 406 does, was the right approach to combat Westboro.
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The lone Supreme Court justice who voted against Westboro in the case was Samuel Alito. In Justice Alito’s dissent he stated: “Mr. Snyder wanted what is surely the right of any parent who experiences such an incalculable loss: to bury his son in peace. The court now holds that the First Amendment protected [Westboro’s] right to brutalize Mr. Snyder. I cannot agree.”
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Freedom of speech in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Criticism of the government and advocacy of unpopular ideas that people may find distasteful or against public policy are almost always permitted. A society that allows free speech can get messy, but if we begin to censor one group, no group is safe. While Westboro’s protests are unbiblical, unchristian, and mean spirited, they have a right to conduct them in a free society.
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If this so called church decides to challenge Oklahoma’s new law creating a buffer zone, it could wind up costing the taxpayers of Oklahoma. Westboro has proven their ability in the past to successfully argue the case their civil rights are being violated and get substantial monetary awards. While Roberts suggested the ‘buffer’ zones, Westboro has threatened to challenge any legislation that limits their civil rights and if it goes to the Supreme Court, it could be ruled a violation of their free speech.
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