The Westboro Baptist Church has had the decision to allow it to make anti-gay protests at military funerals upheld in the Supreme Court, with a majority of 8-1.
The church members should be allowed to picket funerals by relying on their First Amendment rights to free speech, the court found.
They ruled: �What Westboro said, in the whole context of how and where it chose to say it, is entitled to �special protection� under the First Amendment, and that protection cannot be overcome by a jury finding that the picketing was outrageous.�
The case was brought originally by the parents of Matthew Snyder, a Marine who died in Iraq in 2006.
When his body was repatriated to the United States for burial, members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested outside the church where Snyder�s funeral was to be held.
Counter-demonstrations and a police presence forced the funeral route to be diverted.
The church, whose belief it is that God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality by killing soldiers in conflict situations, published a poem on its website criticising Snyder�s parents.
Matthew Snyder�s father was originally awarded compensation of $11m. This was reduced to $5m, before the award was annulled altogether because of the church�s constitutional right to voice its conviction.
The tactics employed by the organisation were described by their detractors as �psychological terrorism�.
While numerous organisations have condemned the church�s messages, many have been forced to recommend that their rights are upheld for fear of creating a precedent at odds with the concepts of freedom of expression.
The church�s website was recently taken down by the group Anonymous.
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