In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday (March 2) that the “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” protesters from Westboro Baptist Church have First Amendment rights to protest military funerals. But does that mean more protests from religious groups are ahead? Or more efforts to limit them?

The majority determined that the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his small church in Topeka, Kansas, had free-speech rights to picket within 300 feet of the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.

The court’s lone dissenter, Justice Samuel Alito, argued it was wrong for protesters to continue “inflicting severe and lasting emotional injury on an ever growing list of innocent victims.”

Legal experts differ on whether Westboro will now be a role model for other religious groups with strong views deemed offensive.

John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, which filed an amicus brief in support of Westboro’s right to protest, said the decision could provide more room to air unpopular religious views.

Whitehead is already defending a street preacher who police told to stop preaching with a handheld microphone on a public sidewalk outside last year’s Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Va.

“I think it’s going to protect those kinds of people,” said Whitehead, who is based in Charlottesville, Va. “It’s an 8-1 decision.”

But Ira Lupu, a church-state expert at George Washington University Law School, said there are probably few groups comparable to Westboro that would seize on this case because the group’s “God Hates Fags” signs are just too extreme.

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