The horrible Westboro Baptist “Church” took their act to the Supreme Court of the United States today. Margie Phelps, daughter of Fred Phelps, argued her family’s case today in front of the court.

The case is officially known as Snyder v. Phelps and at issue is whether the First Amendment protects protesters at a funeral from liability. In this case, the liability is for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the family of the deceased.

[Click to download podcast of oral arguments]

We’ve all seen the horrific protests the Phelps family imposes on the funerals of our fallen soldiers. Now SCOTUS must decide if the Phelps family is liable for the harm caused by those outrageous protests.

If the entire Phelps family were hit by a truck tomorrow I would be quite pleased. They are among the most despicable creatures this country has ever produced.

However, I’m very torn about this case. It should be illegal to protest the way they’re protesting. But at the same time I’m not sure if it really should be. It really is a slippery slope when you begin curtailing free speech. You would hope that most people would have enough decency not to use their free speech rights in such a malicious and hateful way, but that’s not the case.

It seems to me a happy medium would be to simply impose a distance regulation. But I’m no lawyer so I don’t know. I don’t have a clue how the court is going to rule on this, but I suspect they may fall on the side of free speech.

Famed record producer Phil Spector was sentenced today to 19 years to life in prison for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

-Chris Jones