Not surprising ...

Supreme Court says Fred Phelps and his family of malcontent whackos can't be sued:

The justices by a 8-1 vote on Wednesday said members of the Westboro Baptist Church had a right to promote what they call a broad-based message on public matters such as wars.

The father of a fallen Marine had sued the small church, saying those protests amounted to targeted harassment and an intentional infliction of emotional distress.

h/t Ace

It seems to me that this is but one area where there's going to have to be a bit of civil ... disobedience, if you will. Fred Phelps and his family are going to have to be more afraid of the populace where they're going to protest than they are of the law (since it seems it's squarely on their side). And yes, I'm talking about some level of violence here.

The only thing that can be done as a stop-gap measure is for law enforcement to make sure Phelps knows that his safety can't be guaranteed.

He tends not to show up in places like that.

pm