The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that members of the Westboro Baptist Church are protected by the First Amendment when they protest military funerals, even though they do so with hateful and vile speech. The justices ruled 8-1 (Sam Alito was the lone dissenter) that the family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder could not sue the church for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy when the group protested at Matthew’s funeral in 2006. A jury had earlier awarded the family $2.9 million in compensatory damages, as well as $8 million in punitive damages.

“Speech is powerful,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and – as it did here – inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker.”

Westboro members – almost solely made up of the family of “pastor” (and Democrat) Fred Phelps – claim their message that God is judging America for its permissive views on homosexuality are aimed at unspecified actions of the military and those who serve, but not specific service members. Albert Snyder, Matthew’s father, had a different take. “I was just shocked that any individual could do this to another human being,” he said. “I mean, it was inhuman.”

Roberts seemed to agree to a point. “Westboro believes that America is morally flawed; many Americans might feel the same about Westboro,” he wrote. “Westboro’s funeral picketing is certainly hurtful and its contribution to public discourse may be negligible.” At the same time, “As a nation we have chosen a different course – to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”

Though it pains us to say so, we think the Court got this one right. While we do not endorse or sanction anything this fringe group does, First Amendment rights to speech and assembly  should not be subject to restrictions and definitions by Congress. That would be a slippery slope toward the abyss of the majority’s definition of “hate speech.”

Then again, Margie Phelps, the lead legal counsel for the church and daughter of “pastor” Fred, had this to say: “Shut up all that talk about infliction of emotional distress. When you’re standing there with your young child’s body bits and pieces in a coffin you’ve been dealt some emotional distress by the Lord your God.” The group vows to “quadruple” protests after the ruling.

The price of liberty is sometimes dear indeed.