Snyder v. Phelps: Defending Speech You Hate

Media law experts will discuss last month's Supreme Court ruling that the First Amendment protects the right to stage protests at funerals and burials. The Court ruled in favor of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, whose members frequently picket military funerals, claiming the death of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is God's way of punishing the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality and abortion. Panelists include Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center; Jeff Hunt, a First Amendment attorney in Salt Lake City, Utah; Adam Kissell, Vice President of Programs for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; and Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center. Richard Doak, former editorial page editor at the Des Moines Register, will moderate. Part of the First Amendment Day Celebration.