BAM! BOOM! POW!
A free speech case as big as Mt. Everest; read on
APR 28, 2024
∙ PAID
—Free speech that inflicts great emotional harm: a landmark case—
Hope I don’t have to remind you that some defamation cases are built on EMOTIONAL DISTRESS.1
“What this man said caused me great emotional pain. I was devastated. I still am.”
BANG.
The jury agrees. Great harm. Pay this emotionally smashed victim more money than you could make in a hundred lifetimes, you son of a bitch. How could you be so unfeeling? The words you uttered against this woman were like stab wounds to the heart.
But wait. What about a US Supreme Court ruling in 2011? Snyder vs. Phelps. Ever hear of that case? I didn’t think so.2
It involved a small church who held, get this, protests at military FUNERALS.
With words like—Good. Dead soldiers.
Right there. While the parents were grieving at graveside.
Good. Dead soldiers. This is God’s punishment against America for being tolerant of homosexuality.
Seeing the picture? Free speech? Inflicting great emotional distress?
So, the father of one soldier who was burying his son, and was exposed to this church’s protest (not even any evidence his son was gay) sued the head of the church, and the case made its way, eventually, to the Supreme Court.
And the Court basically said—yes, terrible and outrageous and egregious, this protest at a funeral…
BUT it’s free speech and it’s protected.
BAM.
End of story.
Does anyone cite this ruling today? Hold it high? Wave it as a banner? Show how far free speech is supposed to go?
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