Westboro Baptist church loses suit; damages $2.9 million

[Slimething]

So, expressed as a simple yes/no question -- SHOULD PEOPLE BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DAMAGES THEY CAUSE THROUGH THEIR SPEECH?

Yes or no, please.

By "Opinion" ....

Nice try, drkitten! :)

[Zep]

Of course Fred will be back again, and he won't be paying a cent as the courts can't enforce that. It's simply a debt the church owes now.

As a consequence, I suggest they allow the city to extend the "fenceline" for groups protesting funerals to any arbitrary distance; from the family home, the church, the gravesite, and the cortege route between. Then the Phelps clan can uphold their First Amendment rights and protest their little black hearts out at any funeral they want...from 50 miles away. ;)

[Dustin Kesselberg]

Nice try, drkitten! :)

It's not a "Yes" or "No" question. It's like asking "Are Cars blue? Yes or No?" Some cars are blue, some are not. If you say "Yes" then it gives the impression you're saying all cars are blue, if you say "No" then the impression that none are. The question of whether or not people should be responsible for the damage that their speech causes is not a "Yes" or "No" question. In Some cases they should, when it's slander or libel or actual threats or costly pranks, etc. However when it comes to expressing opinions that don't amount to slander or libel or threats then the answer is No, in order to preserve the right to express all opinions we can not allow any to be prohibited.

[Dustin Kesselberg]

Of course Fred will be back again, and he won't be paying a cent as the courts can't enforce that. It's simply a debt the church owes now.

As a consequence, I suggest they allow the city to extend the "fenceline" for groups protesting funerals to any arbitrary distance; from the family home, the church, the gravesite, and the cortege route between. Then the Phelps clan can uphold their First Amendment rights and protest their little black hearts out at any funeral they want...from 50 miles away. ;)

Yea, That's real fair..Why not in the process we also make the distance for protesting Bush 50 miles? For protesting any govt behavior 50 miles? For protesting individual behavior 50 miles? You can't make some arbitrary determination and only apply the rule to the groups or the opinions that you don't like.

[COLONEL]

These idiots (WBC) were in Vermont last week . I know the police were not happy with them being here . I know the police were waiting for them to screw up on their way out of town so they could issue a few tickets, my source has not told me yet if they got ticketed or not .

[bignickel]

Of course Fred will be back again, and he won't be paying a cent as the courts can't enforce that. It's simply a debt the church owes now.
Can't his creditors put a lien on his 'house' or 'church' or whatever it is?

(or maybe hire Dog the Bounty Hunter to 'extradite' them and take 'em to Mexico?)