The U.S. Supreme Court has opted to stay quiet on a local free-speech case, marking a victory for a group of evangelical Christians who marched around Dearborn with a pig’s head on a pole while telling Muslims they would “burn in hell” at a festival five years ago. A federal appeals court had previously ruled in favor of the demonstrators, concluding members’ speech was protected activity. Today, the nation’s highest court declined to hear the case — offering no reason — which means the lower court ruling stands. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had previously ruled the demonstrators were protected by the Constitution…. “The First Amendment … envelops all manner of speech, even when that speech is loathsome in its intolerance, designed to cause offense, and, as a result of such offense, arouses violent retaliation.”
One of the beautiful things about the 1st Amendment is that its guarantee of free speech and expression doesn’t come with a filter or qualifier. There’s no requirement that you play well with others, be respectful, and/or allow for those whose beliefs may not mesh with your own. If you want to be an absolute, unedited, unfiltered dick to someone, you in most cases have the absolute right to be as loud, objectionable, obnoxious, and repulsive as you deem appropriate. It’s not a great way to make friends and influence enemies, of course- unless by “influence enemies” you mean “make more of them.”
Our story begins in 2012 with a group of fine, upstanding, adherents to the teachings of Jesus Christ called Bible Believers. Evidently deciding that going to church and believing themselves to be superior- “If you ain’t got Jesus, you ain’t $#!&”- wasn’t sufficient to prove their piety and religiosity- the Bible Believers decided it was time to step up their game. They crashed an Arab-American street festival, stampeding through the peaceful gathering of Jesus-hating heathens with a severed pig’s head mounted on a pole while carrying anti-Muslim signs and making anti-Muslim statements.
They seem nice, eh? Mama must be SO proud.
Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies removed the demonstrators — who were pelted with rocks, eggs and water bottles — to restore the peace. At issue in the case was the so-called heckler’s veto — where police silence a speaker to appease an angry crowd and stave off potential violence.
The demonstrators sued, claiming the deputies failed to protect them and instead unlawfully kicked them out to silence their protected speech. The courts twice ruled in favor of the sheriff’s deputies, concluding they were justified in evicting the demonstrators on security grounds — they were trying to prevent further violence.
If you’re thinking that the Bible Believers sued because they felt they’d been deprived of their inalienable right to demonstrate themselves to be intolerant pricks, you win the prize. The way these fine representatives of Christian charity and tolerance see it, they have the inalienable tight to do as they choose…because God’s on their side. It’s not their fault Muslims have chose to worship a false god, and that they hate Christians for their freedom and free pass to Heaven.
This must be what they call spiritual warfare, eh? Or perhaps the Gospel doesn’t require one to be kind, considerate, and/or respectful of others and their beliefs after all?
The lawsuit eventually wound up before the entire U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals bench, which reversed course and ruled in favor of the Bible Believers, concluding their speech was protected.
“Diversity, in viewpoints and among cultures, is not always easy. An inability or a general unwillingness to understand new or different points of view may breed fear, distrust and even loathing,” the justices wrote. “But … the First Amendment demands that we tolerate the viewpoints of others with whom we may disagree.”
Evidently, the demand “that we tolerate the viewpoints of others with whom we may disagree” is a one-way street. The Muslims at the street fair were required under the 1st Amendment to allow the Bible Believers to stomp through their celebration with a severed pig’s head impaled on a pole…but the Bible Believers were under no obligation to extend the same courtesy to Muslims. This is a Christian country, yo.
Nope, no double standard here, sheeple….
The lawsuit was filed against Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon and two deputies, who had argued that they had a right to protect the public from violence on the night of the festival, noting the Bible Believers had caused problems in the past. According to court documents, the group attended the Dearborn festival the year before and things got ugly: Members spewed hate messages, fights broke out and the group was evicted.
Did the Bible Believers honestly expect that they’d be able to undertake their impression of a Christian bull in a Muslim china shop without blowback? Did they believe that their faith somehow makes them immune to considerations of respect and simple human decency? How arrogant must one be to believe they have the inalienable right to piss in someone’s sandbox…and that the owner of said sandbox has no right to respond to said provocations?
When it returned the next year, the group requested extra protection, saying it was entitled to police protection from hostile audiences. But the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office offered no such protection, arguing the group wasn’t entitled to it and that law enforcement has the right to remove a speaker from an event “for his own protection” and to preserve the peace.
The courts disagreed.
I understand the court’s ruling on 1st Amendment grounds, but I find the expectation that “Christians” engaging in deliberately offensive and provocative speech deserve protection from law enforcement difficult to comprehend. I can’t help but wonder what might had transpired had the roles been reversed and a group called Quran Believers had trampled a Christian church’s street festival screaming anti-Christian slogans and carrying signs bearing anti-Christian slogans. Somehow I think the response would have been a fair bit different.
Nope; no double standard here, sheeple….
