Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/09-751.pdf
Page Number: 27.0

Cite as:  562 U. S. ____ (2011) 

5 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

Catholic  church  where  no  funeral  was  taking  place.
(There  are nearly  19,000  Catholic  churches  in  the  United 
States.4)  But of course, a small group picketing at any of
these locations would have probably gone unnoticed.

The  Westboro  Baptist  Church,  however,  has  devised  a 
strategy that remedies this problem.  As the Court notes, 
church  members  have  protested  at  nearly  600  military 
funerals.  Ante, at 1.  They have also picketed the funerals 
of  police  officers,5  firefighters,6  and  the  victims  of  natural 
disasters,7  accidents,8  and  shocking  crimes.9   And  in  ad-
vance of these protests, they issue press releases to ensure
that their protests will attract public attention.10 

This  strategy  works  because  it  is  expected  that  respon-
dents’ verbal assaults will wound the family and friends of 
the  deceased  and  because  the  media  is  irresistibly  drawn 
to the sight of persons who are visibly in grief.  The more 
outrageous  the  funeral  protest,  the  more  publicity  the
Westboro  Baptist  Church  is  able  to  obtain.    Thus,  when 
the  church  recently  announced  its  intention  to  picket  the 
funeral  of  a  9-year-old  girl  killed  in  the  shooting  spree  in
Tucson—proclaiming  that  she  was  “better  off  dead”11— 
their  announcement  was  national  news,12  and  the  church 
—————— 

4 See United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Informa-

tion Project, http://www.usccb.org/comm/cip.shtml#toc4. 

5 See  http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/20110124_St-Petersburg-FL- 

Dead-Police.pdf. 

6 See http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/20110120_Dead-Volunteer-

Firefighter-Connecting_the_Dots-Baltimore-MD.pdf. 

7 See 

http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/20110104_Newburg-and-

Rolla-MO-Tornado-Connecting-the-Dots.pdf. 

8 See  http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/20101218_Wichita-KS-Two-

Dead-Wichita-Bikers.pdf. 

9 See  http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/20110129_Tampa-FL-God-

Sent-Military-Mom-Shooter-to-Kill-Kids.pdf. 

10 See nn. 5–9, supra. 
11 See 

http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/20110109_AZ-Shooter-

Connecting-the-Dots-Day-2.pdf. 

12 See, e.g., Stanglin, Anti-Gay Church Group Plans to Picket Tucson