Pros And Cons Of The First Amendment

Francis Mejia
Period 4

Many parts of the United States Constitution can be interpreted in different ways. This makes it difficult to make decisions on cases because of the many possible ways to look at what is constitutional and what is not. In every court decision, The Supreme Court must carefully analyze and interpret the amendments to the Constitution and apply them. The first Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” One controversial case involving the rules of the First Amendment was Snyder v. Phelps in 2010. The Supreme Court says it is acceptable according to the Constitution for people to protest at military funerals. However, this should not be considered constitutional because it violates the rights of the family of the deceased.
In the case of Snyder v. Phelps, the first Amendment had been brought to the attention of the court and how it may have been violated in a past case which awarded the Snyder family five-million dollars in damages
due to a protest that was held outside of the funeral of the deceased Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. Fred Phelps and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church have the belief that God punishes the United States because it tolerates homosexuality. Therefore, they often protest at funerals of deceased military members. Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder died in the line of duty in Iraq; the Westboro Baptist Church picketed his funeral with offensive signs with messages such as,“Thank God for Dead Soldiers”, “Thank God for 9/11”, and “Don’t Pray for the USA.” Before picketing, the church informed local authorities. They also held the protest on public land and followed all police instructions. The soldier’s father, Albert Snyder was able to see the picket signs during the funeral, but could not read what they said; he found out about the offensive messages on them afterwards from a news story. Snyder sued Phelps and the rest of the church because their protest caused him emotional distress. Phelps came back saying that the First Amendment protected his speech. The court for the District of Maryland agreed with Snyder and gave him $5 million. Then, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals changed the judgement because they believed the First Amendment protected Phelps’ speech.
When this case was brought to the Supreme Court, they too decided that Phelps’ speech was protected under the Free Speech Clause.
The matter up for interpretation was whether or not the signs and comments from the Westboro Baptist Church were speaking on “matters of public concern.” They analyzed the content, form, and context of the speech to decide if it related to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community. The Supreme Court said that, because the picketers were on public land, adjacent to a public street, and the overall theme of their speech was related to broader public issues, Phelps and the other picketers were speaking on matters of public concern and were entitled to protection from the First Amendment. This was decided in an 8-1
vote.
Though Americans do have the right to free speech, they can only do so if they are not infringing on the rights of others. By protesting at the funeral of a soldier killed in the line of duty, they were infringing on the rights of the Snyder family. The Westboro Baptist Church members intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the family. Speech can be unprotected if it knowingly inflicts severe emotional distress; the Westboro Baptist Church definitely did this to the Snyder family.Their signs and comments presented offensive speech. Offensive speech or speech that incites a breach of the peace is not protected under the First Amendment. The dissenting justice in this case said, "Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case." The church gave publicity to the Snyder family’s private life, and caused suffering to innocent victims.
The First Amendment protects a person’s right to free speech; however, there are limits to what speech is protected. Snyder’s reputation and his family were attacked by Westboro Baptist Church. The rights of Snyder and his family were infringed by the Westboro Church when they protested with offensive signs at the funeral. The family deserves to have the protection of the U.S. government at this time more than any other.