The President has signed a bill outlawing the Westboro Baptist Church’s protests of military funerals:
President Barack Obama signed the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 into law on Monday, providing a wide-ranging package of benefits to military personnel and enacting new restrictions on protests of service member funerals.
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Under the new legislation, protests must be held at least 300 feet from military funerals and are prohibited two hours before or after a service. The law counters a 2011 Supreme Court ruling, which found that displays such as Westboro’s were protected under the First Amendment.
SCOTUS got this right last year. Obama should not have signed this. I get the sentiment, I really do. WBC is a horrible organization full of terrible people who deserve our scorn. But we can’t legislate against them because we don’t like them. They’re assholes for sure, but they are not criminals.
This is the kind of bill that passes easily in an election year because nothing is more sympathetic than a military funeral and nothing is less sympathetic than disrupting one, but freedom of speech is important. WBC has a right to peaceably assemble, even near a funeral, and they have a right to say horrible things too. Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences, and there are better ways to deal with this kind of slime than eroding out civil liberties, even a little bit.
The bill sets a horrendously dangerous precedent, that we can outlaw protests that are considered unpopular. We shouldn’t ever cross that line.
SCOTUS needs to shoot this down, ASAP.
520 Chestnut 
I couldn’t agree me. I hate WBC so much it’s painful, but they are not worth eroding our civil liberties. I’m sure they will sue and it’s likely they will win. I kinda hope it’s sooner rather than later.
When in doubt, wrap yourself in the flag and throw the constitution back at the Supreme Court. And to think I almost checked Obama instead of Mikihail Gorbachev in 2008!