RSS | Newsletters | Facebook CAP en Español
Center for American Progress Center for American Progress
Issues Domestic Civil Rights, Liberties, and Justice

Free Speech or Hate Speech?

This week the Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas’s right to protest at the funerals of slain servicemen and servicewomen. The Westboro protesters believe, and now the Supreme Court has confirmed, that they are within their First Amendment right to use the funerals of dead soldiers as an appropriate venue to vocalize their hatred of the gay community. Yes, that’s right: The Westboro church believes that America suffers ills such as war and terrorism because of its acceptance of gays and lesbians.

Read more here.

This article was originally published in Global Grind.

To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:

Print: Katie Peters (economy, education, and health care)
202.741.6285 or kpeters@americanprogress.org

Print: Christina DiPasquale (foreign policy and security, energy)
202.481.8181 or cdipasquale@americanprogress.org

Print: Laura Pereyra (ethnic media, immigration)
202.741.6258 or lpereyra@americanprogress.org

Radio: Anne Shoup
202.481.7146 or ashoup@americanprogress.org

TV: Lindsay Hamilton
202.483.2675 or lhamilton@americanprogress.org

Web: Andrea Peterson
202.481.8119 or apeterson@americanprogress.org

Subscribe to RSS Feeds

RSS IconSite-Wide and Issue-Specific RSS Feeds

Related Materials

Progressives Must Take Back Courts, by Andrew Blotky

Federal Judicial Emergencies, by Andrew Blotky, April Carson

Auditing the Cost of the Virginia Tech Massacre, by Anthony Green, Donna Cooper

Texas’s Judicial Emergencies and the Need for Senate Action

The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States, by Sophia Kerby

Also by Danielle Moodie-Mills

The Kids Are Not Alright, September 8, 2011

Cancer Never Tasted So Good , May 12, 2011

Sound Off: A Slow Sweet Death, May 12, 2011

Also by Aisha C. Moodie-Mills

President Obama Is Ending Black America's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy, May 17, 2012

The Real Reason Blacks Won’t Abandon President Obama Over Marriage Equality , May 17, 2012

Moving Beyond Stigma, April 30, 2012