Why did Althouse put up 5 posts on the Westboro Baptist Church protests here in Madison?

Sorry to inflict all that on you, but I wanted you to see what really goes on, and I thought that needed some strong sunlight. There were 5 posts today:

1. Introducing the protest planned for today.

2. Still photography from the scene.

3. The first video, showing the Phelps group and 2 different counterprotesters who express themselves in entirely different ways.

4. The second video, showing Meade's close encounter with Margie Phelps.

5. The third video, Phelps explains what she's doing and shows her style, and Meade crosses for video of the folks on the other side.

Margie Phelps objects to "the fag agenda" and the installation of "a fag so-called preacher"

This is the third video I edited from footage Meade shot in Madison today, as Margie Phelps and others protested the ordination of a gay minister. This 5-minute clip includes Phelps's explanation of her mission and the response from the counterprotesters on the other side of the street.



Watch for the sweet old woman at 2:08. She takes a close look at Phelps and then continues across the street. At 2:46, Phelps uses a shocking epithet against the new minister. At 3:11, Meade crosses the street and we hear their song about "marching on the side of love."

Margie Phelps encounters the police... and Meade.

Another video by Meade — edited by me — showing today's protest by the Westboro Baptist Church folk. Watch for Phelps to tell Meade to "get up out of my grille." And wait for the fellow protester who attempts to lighten things up with a suggestion of song. Interestingly, it's the same song we've heard a hundred times from the anti-Scott Walker protesters downtown. The lyrics are differently tweaked.

If the phrase "up out of my grille" sounds out of place but also oddly familiar, perhaps you remember the oral argument in the Supreme Court case involving the Westboro folks:

At page 40 [of the transcript], Margie Phelps, arguing in favor of the right to express outrageous opinions in the vicinity of a funeral, is quoted as saying:

I think approaching an individual up close and in their grille to berate them gets you out of the zone of protection, and we would never do that.

(Boldface added.) Then, at pages 47-48, she's quoted saying:

Your body of law about captive audience... where they, by the way, specifically said at footnote this isn't about content. You've got to be up -- again, I will uses [sic] the colloquial term -- up in your grill. The term I think the Court used was confrontational.

And page 49:

I do think that you could have a public event where there was not an element of vulnerability in the people going in. You might even let them up in their grill.

(At the linked post, I discuss the spelling issue: Is it "grille" or "grill"? It's grille.)

Westboro Baptists bring their signs and songs to Madison...

... and encounter some different types of opponents, caught here on video by Meade. (Edited by me, with added text.)

The Westboro Baptist Church protests the ordination of a gay Presbyterian minister.

The protest took place at the corner of Mineral Point and Segoe Roads. Meade got there around 9:15. That is Margie Phelps at the extreme right of this first picture:



In this picture, a man with an "ITAPA KEGGA" T-shirt takes a gander at the protesters:



Arrayed on the other side of the street, in front of the concrete cross of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, you can see the counterprotesters, who appear happy with their new minister:



They look like nice people. They were singing "We are standing on the side of love," and they have in their midst a beautiful child:



Also, there's a man in a Guy Fawkes mask holding a rainbow exclamation point and a woman with a sign that says: "Love knows no boundaries; Courage has NO limit!"



I have a lot of video to edit, and it will give you a sense of what the atmosphere there was. Meade sums it up this way: "The Westboro Baptist Church people were trying to incite people and the others were out there enjoying a beautiful day and on the side of peace and love."

Today's ordination of the first gay Presbyterian pastor is "an important event in Heaven and on earth."

According to Margie Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist Church, "And it’s our duty as the church of the Lord, Jesus Christ, to come to the scene and remind people of their duty to God, so that’s why we’re coming,"

WBC wrote on their website “Scott Anderson has no hope of heaven, and you know it. Yet, you refuse to tell him the truth and enable him in his sin. God Hates Fags and Fag-Enablers alike — you are all worthy of death (hell).”

The ordination ceremony and the protest are going on right now. New Media Meade is on the scene, with multiple cameras. Stay tuned.

By writing on the web, you can toughen up to the point where you can stand your ground in the physical space that is dominated by people who feel physically and intellectually invulnerable.

That's what I say, in this dialogue with Dahlia Litwick, who feels much the same way...



... except that when I say there's a wall you need to bust through because there's freedom on the other side, she says she doesn't know if she's through the wall. "I think my head's sticking out one side of the wall and my feet are at the other end." I pictured this:



Also in that clip is a comparison of the Wisconsin protesters to the Westboro Baptist Church protesters, whose free-speech right to protest near soldiers' funerals was upheld recently in Snyder v. Phelps. Unlike the Wisconsin protesters who sought to drown out Sarah Palin's speech, the protesters in Phelps took care not to disrupt the funeral:

The record confirms that any distress occasioned by Westboro’s picketing turned on the content and viewpoint of the message conveyed, rather than any interference with the funeral itself....

Here, Westboro stayed well away from the memorial service. Snyder could see no more than the tops of the signs when driving to the funeral. And there is no indication that the picketing in any way interfered with the funeral service itself.

The Westboro Baptist Church wins in the Supreme Court in the case about protesting at a soldier's funeral.

"The First Amendment shields Westboro from tort liability for its picketing in this case."

Chief Justice Roberts writes the opinion, with only Justice Alito dissenting. Justice Breyer has a concurring opinion. From the Roberts opinion:

The picketing was conducted under police supervision some 1,000 feet from the church, out of the sight of those at the church. The protest was not unruly; there was no shouting, profanity, or violence....

Given that Westboro’s speech was at a public place on a matter of public concern, that speech is entitled to “special protection” under the First Amendment. Such speech cannot be restricted simply because it is upsetting or arouses contempt. “If there is a bedrock principle underly- ing the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” Texas v. Johnson, 491 U. S. 397, 414 (1989). Indeed, “the point of all speech protection . . . is to shield just those choices of content that in someone’s eyes are misguided, or even hurtful.” Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc., 515 U. S. 557, 574 (1995)....

Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and—as it did here— inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a Nation we have chosen a different course—to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate. That choice requires that we shield West- boro from tort liability for its picketing in this case.

Clearly, this is the right outcome.

AND: Alito, the lone dissenter, stresses the value of the tort called "intentional infliction of emotional distress":

Respondents’ outrageous conduct caused petitioner great injury, and the Court now compounds that injury by depriving petitioner of a judgment that acknowledges the wrong he suffered.

In order to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated, it is not necessary to allow the brutalization of innocent victims like petitioner.

Breyer's short concurrence makes the point that the decision is limited to in-person picketing about matters of "public concern." In adding that the Court "does not examine in depth the effect of television broadcasting" and "internet postings," I get the sense that he's looking ahead to cases about bullying.

"Her smash-mouthed assault on His deity, sovereignty and infallibility brought more GodSmacks upon her..."

If you're trying to fathom the twisted reasoning behind picketing Elizabeth Edwards' funeral (by the Westboro Baptist Church), the hateful text is here.

"It appears that at least a few of the justices really, really, really just hate the Phelps family and its manner of protest..."

"... and they might even be willing to whip up a little new First Amendment law to prove it."

Margie J. Phelps represents Westboro Baptist Church, and yes, before you ask, she hates you, she really hates you. She most likely hates the six Catholics and three Jews up there on the bench, too. But she hides it well....

Scalia wonders whether these signs and Web posts could be unprotected words under the fighting words exception to the First Amendment, but Phelps says this protest was never intended to provoke a fight. Channeling Stephen Colbert, she says their message is just this: "Nation. Hear this little church. If you want them to stop dying, stop sinning."...

The headline writers are going to say that the justices "struggled" with this case. That may be so, but what they struggled with has very little to do with the law, which rather clearly protects even the most offensive speech about public matters such as war and morality. They are struggling here with the facts, which they hate. Which we all hate. But looking at the parties through hate-colored glasses has never been the best way to think about the First Amendment. In fact, as I understand it, that's why we needed a First Amendment in the first place.

I absolutely agree with Dahlia Lithwick about this.

$11 million damages for offensive speech.

It's against the vile Fred Phelps, so do you care? Are you happy?

It was the first-ever verdict against Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist Christian group based in Topeka that has protested military funerals across the country with placards bearing shock-value messages such as "Thank God for dead soldiers."

They contend that the deaths are punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality and of gays in the military.

These protests are insane — not only hateful but also incoherent. (The dead soldier wasn't gay.) The tort claim was expectation of privacy at the funeral and for intentionally inflicting emotional distress.

Fred W. Phelps Sr., Westboro's founder, vowed to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va.

"It's going to be reversed in five minutes," he said. This case, he added, "will elevate me to something important," as it draws more publicity to his cause....

"This was in a public space," [lawprof Mark] Graber said "While the actions are reprehensible, the First Amendment protects a lot that's reprehensible."

Graber's right.