Legal News

Fringe Church, Spurred by Court Ruling, Will Continue the Protests

By Ashby Jones

Did you think, while reading the coverage of Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision involving the Westboro Baptist Church, that maybe, just maybe, having gotten a bit of validation, the church might now dial down the tactics?

That maybe, just maybe, you wouldn’t have to read anything else about their anti-gay protests at funerals of U.S. soldiers? That they’d maybe pick up their, uh, provocative signs and move along?

Not a chance.

The group, said on Wednesday that it’ll keep on keepin’ on. It’ll continue to demonstrate in the same style that landed it in the court system to begin with. Click here for the Reuters story.

“We are trying to warn you to flee the wrath of God, flee the wrath of destruction. What would be more kind than that?” said church member Margie Phelps said after the ruling. “We have not slowed down and we will not.”

“I do very much appreciate that I get to be the mouth of God in this matter,” she said.

The church believes that God hates homosexuality and is punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuals.

This morning’s papers are chock full of takes on the decision. It happens about as often as a CalTech basketball win, but the editorial boards of the WSJ and NYT actually agreed on something: that the court got it right. The NYT called Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion “admirable,” while the WSJ called it “important.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 03, 2011 (boomark / email).