A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled in favor of Westboro Baptist Church—the people who express the love of God by picketing funerals of gays and soldiers—in a lawsuit, as detailed here. The court ruled that however repellent the views of Westboro and its leader, Fred Phelps, it was still covered by the First Amendment.
I’m in favor of this, overall, though I’m surprised at the Court’s decision a piece one of the protesters posted online claiming that the soldier’s parents taught him “to defy his creator,” “raised him from the devil” and “taught him that God was a liar.” This would seem to fall into the slander category—the court’s argument it was just a hysterical hate-filled rant that couldn’t be taken as a serious statement of fact is one I’d disagree with (hysterical yes, but from these people I see no reason to think it’s an exaggeration of their views).
Still, better to err on the side of more speech than less. Even when the speakers are scum.

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