The Hill News

Isn’t it nice when the right-leaning and left-leaning Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court can agree on a decision, rather than battling it out in a 5-4 split? Consensus seems especially happy where political passions are running high, as in the funeral-picketing case Snyder v. Phelps. And so Wednesday’s 8-1 decision in favor of the picketers would appear to be â€" as the Times Editorial called it â€" “admirable.” One might even think this is a step toward the much discussed aspiration for a political culture in which decency and mutual respect transcend malice and rancorous distrust.

Alas, nothing could be further from the truth. Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion elevates raw liberty over the duty to take others’ needs and vulnerabilities seriously. Albert Snyder, a private citizen mourning the loss of his son in Iraq, was forced to endure the decision of total strangers to turn his son’s funeral into a media event of national proportions. 

Fred Phelps and his one-family religious sect have a message for America: homosexuality is evil and God kills American soldiers to punish America for tolerating homosexuality. 

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