Sunday, March 6, 2011

Justice Alito's Dissenting Voice

Funeral pickets are constitutionally-protected speech, nation’s high court declares in 8-1 ruling. Justice Samuel Alito voted against Phelps.  His voice is the only that speaks of decency.

“Respondents’ [Phelps'] 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. I therefore respectfully dissent.”

A society that fails to protect rituals and ceremonies surrounding death and burial is a society on the brink of collapse. This isn't about freedom of speech.  This is about compassion for the mourners and dignity for the dead.

1 comment:

George Patsourakos said...

While funeral pickets may be protected by freedom of speech -- as the majority of justices in the Supreme Court viewed this case -- people who are having a funeral should not be subject to pickets and name-calling by a heartless group of people.

Having a peaceful funeral -- without a bunch of protesters outside -- should also be considered inalienable right of Americans.

The majority of the Supreme Court justices have shown their lack of compassion for mourners by agreeing that protesters have a right to insult them.

The ruling, in effect, does not mean that the Supreme Court favors democracy; it means that the Supreme Court favors anarchy by allowing people to do whatever they want to do.