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Dead Marine's father ordered to pay protesters' legal costs


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From my understanding of the case the Marine's father took them to court and lost so he has to pay their legal fees. I don't have a problem with this. I HATE what they are doing and would not accept it on my watch but they are protected by laws that are in place for all of us.

The father’s money would have been better spent to pay the fines for assaulting every last one of the church fuckers. I would gladly help him assaulting the assholes or donate to that worthy cause.

The 1st amendment is to protect us from the government; there are still consequences for you actions. There are laws to punish people who commit assault. I'm cool with both laws and willing to partake in both of them for the right cause.

I’m not just thumping my chest here; there are very few cases where I could condone assaulting another person. I have a special respect for our service members and a considerable blind spot for Marines that would allow me to act out in a case like this.

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but when does it become harassment? like was said earlier, schools are public property but you cant stand around shouting about how sex with little kids should be legal (i hope not anyway). can we set up a "protest" outside their church on the public sidewalk and broadcast our disdain for them on loudspeakers so loud that it makes it impossible for the church's sermons to be disruptive? if your free speech can disrupt a funeral, why not a bigoted, hate-filled sermon?

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Can you go picket outside churches with signs that say "The catholic church is a bunch of fags?"

Yes you can.

Can the catholic church members go stand on your street outside your house with a sign that says "Protesters are fags?"

Yes they can

People need to learn the line they are drawing... arguing what the WBC does ISN'T protected speed is retarded. If you're saying "first ammendment be damned, I'd crack skulls" that's a different story.

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...would the WBC be in the right if they were standing on boxes nearby saying the exact same things to the air?

yeah, pretty much... Taking advantage of any rule or regulation, by abusing the privilege with radical or extreme behavior by societal standards, will usually result in more regulations and restrictions for everyone.

In other words, if one of us can't behave, we will all be punished.

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Eh... if they're on public land they have the right to say whatever the hell they want.

I haven't read the article yet, so perhaps my answer will be in there.... But since when are cemetaries "puclic land". Most are privately owned, that I know of.

Are they out on the street or something?

Have these tactless jacka$$' had the balls/classlessness/stupidity to protest in Arlington cemetary yet? I bet that'd get interesting reeeeal quick!

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Here 'ya go Matt, Duane & Justin..... Feel free to debate him

At least one local Constitutional scholar vehemently disagrees that the WBC’s faxes are protected speech under the First Amendment.

“I would not think I’m within my First Amendment right to keep sending people unwanted faxes,” said Bruce Ledewitz, professor of law at Duquesne University School of Law. “This sounds like a text book example of harassment.”

“There is a right to be left alone,” Ledewitz said, citing the 2000 United States Supreme Court decision in Hill v. Colorado, affirming the right of the “unwilling listener” to avoid unwanted communication.

Once an unwilling listener tells the one who continues to communicate that she does not want the communication, “it is not protected by the First Amendment. Period,” Ledewitz said.

The issue of what the WBC can and cannot do extends beyond the First Amendment, according to Sundell, speaking on behalf of the ADL.

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Nothing to debate... I agree. Multiple unwanted faxes is harassment.

He's stating in that above quote, that the harassment also extends to the listeners once they've stated they don't want to hear it. Here.... I'll repost it for you again.... Even has a Supreme Court citation for you ;)

“There is a right to be left alone,” Ledewitz said, citing the 2000 United States Supreme Court decision in Hill v. Colorado, affirming the right of the “unwilling listener” to avoid unwanted communication.

Once an unwilling listener tells the one who continues to communicate that she does not want the communication, “it is not protected by the First Amendment. Period,” Ledewitz said.

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Once an unwilling listener tells the one who continues to communicate that she does not want the communication, “it is not protected by the First Amendment. Period,”

I agree.

I think you want to get us all riled up over that fact. But, as an 'unwilling listener' you can't go out into the public domain and tell people to STFU. Even if YOU don't want to listen, in the public domain, saying "God Hates Fags" or "Thank God for dead soldiers" isn't necessarily directed AT you, it's for the general public consumption within earshot.

This is also why I can't go out into the public domain and complain about someones bumper sticker as 'eye pollution' and force them to remove it from their car after I've communicated that I don't like it.

Here's basically want it boils down to. Public property, free speech - OK. Public property, using a megaphone, free speech - not OK.

http://legallegacy.wordpress.com/

The unwilling listener is not like the passer-by who may be offered a pamphlet in the street but cannot be made to take it,” the Court said in its decision. “In his home or on the street, he is practically helpless to escape this interference with his privacy by loudspeakers except through the protection of the municipality.”

Nor, said the Court, is such a restriction an infringement on free speech, because the restriction wasn’t on content but rather the mode of transmission:

We cannot believe that rights of free speech compel a municipality to allow such mechanical voice amplification on any of its streets. . . . It is an extravagant extension of due process to say that, because of it, a city cannot forbid talking on the streets through a loudspeaker in a loud and raucous tone. . . . Opportunity to gain the public’s ears by objectionably amplified sound on the streets is no more assured by the right of free speech than is the unlimited opportunity to address gatherings on the streets. The preferred position of freedom of speech in a society that cherishes liberty for all does not require legislators to be insensible to claims by citizens to comfort and convenience. To enforce freedom of speech in disregard of the rights of others would be harsh and arbitrary in itself.”

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lol, Fonz puts a lawyer's opinion out there as a "TRY ARGUING WITH THIS" like it's a definitive opinion.

But anyway, I'll remember this next time I'm sitting outside your window listening to you and the wife... it's obscene and I've asked you to stop on numerous counts :)

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