Many Americans find it hard to accept that the First Amendment extends to those trying to convey dumb ideas.

Well, it does. And that isn’t a problem.

What is a problem is the notion that Westboro Baptist Church, whose members haunt military funerals and celebrate the deaths of U.S. service members, is somehow deprived of its constitutional rights unless its “protesters” are allowed close enough to ensure mourners feel the pain the church wishes to inflict.

That’s baloney, and it deserves a lot less solicitude than it’s getting.

What these people do (it’s said to have something to do with divine punishment for America’s tolerance for homosexuals) has more in common with disturbing the peace than with protest, and that’s how it’s viewed in a state House bill.

Protesters would have to stay 500 feet away, leave the funeral site two hours before the service and not return for two hours after.

Unless protesters are seeking an end to funerals, they don’t need to be there at all to make their views known. If their mission is to hurl “fighting words,” that isn’t protected speech.

According to the bill’s sponsor: “I would argue that the First Amendment rights of the family of the deceased are being infringed upon.”

Exactly.

— The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer