One of our most vigorously "protected" freedoms in the US is "freedom of speech." One of the reasons it is so "well defended" is that it directly affects the news and publishing industries, who have the money and resources to defend it.

"Freedom of Speech" has been morphed into a belief that anyone has the right to "say" anything, anytime anywhere. I don't believe that was really what the framers of our Constitutional system really had in mind. I believe what they meant was only that no person should be held "criminally liable" in any civil court for the "content" of his speech.

No "right" needs much defending unless or until it interferes with someone else's "right." Overzealous(?) defense of the Freedom of Speech has perhaps led some to overlook that Freedom of Speech is declared in the same paragraph of the Bill of Rights that declares the right to Freedom of Worship.

As a funeral or burial service, as typically conducted, may be fairly construed as an act of worship, or at the least as the observance of sacred rite and ritual, the picketing by Phelps and his gangs is a direct infringement of the right of those at a funeral to worship in their own way without interference by others.

I'd certainly like to see some publisher pick up on the protection of that right, and place it reasonable opposition to Fred's right to preach "The Church of FRED" (FRED is GOD, just ask him) anywhere and any time he chooses.

John