“Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion, is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action; […] there must be discussion, to show how experience is to be interpreted. Wrong opinions and practices gradually yield to fact and argument: but facts and arguments, to produce any effect on the mind, must be brought before it” – John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

Dear Westboro Baptist Church,

The Westboro Baptist Church has forced Americans to come to terms with possible limits on speech that they find utterly despicable.

We are happy that you exist. From the sincerest depths of our hearts, we really are. We are not saying that we necessarily appreciate what you do, or agree with what you say. In fact, we hold a vitriolic hatred of every word that officially leaves your mouths. We could not possibly disagree more with what you have said and continue to say. That aside, we are grateful that you exist. You may be asking yourselves, “Why on earth would libertarians be so delighted that we exist?” This is the question we wish to answer for you. Your existence gives weight to so many important facets of freedom in this country and in the general scheme of freedom. Your existence gives weight to the free exercise and free speech clauses of the First Amendment, preventing their atrophy from infrequent application.  Your existence gives weight to tort law concerning libel and defamation. Your existence even goes as far as to give weight to the very idea of what freedom of speech means to a free and liberal society.

People get comfortable in their freedom, this much is true. This is also nothing new at all. After visiting the United States in the 19th Century and taking notes on the culture and civic scene, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that it is through this complicity in freedom that freedom meets its demise. People in the United States often become complicit in their freedom. They like finding something here or there to be offended at to remind themselves that they may actually want to place limits on freedom. An occasional wardrobe malfunction, litigation over violent video games, the scandal that is the vice-president saying a naughty word; Americans revel in their occasional debates over these things. But you, WBC, you are a different issue altogether. Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, the religious and the irreligious have all come together in the past to propose legislation to keep you out of parks and away from funerals. They have shown up at your protests and have lobbed items at you in anger. They’ve even chased you all the way to the highest court in the land. You test their freedom. You make them uncomfortable. You do what nearly nothing else can do in this country.

The day Albert Snyder buried his son, Matthew, a fallen Iraq War veteran, you callously greeted the funeral mourners with your infamous “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” signs that have provoked the ire of many. Understandably angered, the elder Snyder decided to bring suit against you. While the outcome of silencing the bile that oozes from your mouths and from your pastor Fred Phelps would seem to benefit society, we actually couldn’t be more thrilled that you prevailed in your right to be hatefully provocative.

Let us take a look at this case more closely, shall we? You were sued for “Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress,” a tort which claims exactly what it says. You showed up at the Snyder funeral and said horrible things about the perished. A jury of twelve found your speech “outrageous,” and it most certainly is. It flies in the face of any decent, ethical person anywhere. However, that does not mean that it can and should be subject to either censorship — as many local legislatures have attempted to do — or to being sued, as the Snyders did. The Supreme Court, in ruling in your favor, helped give more teeth to the First Amendment and to freedom of speech.

“Malarky!” Say our detractors. “Why should anybody be able to say the things that Westboro says? Why shouldn’t they be subject to being sued?”

To answer our detractors, imagine a scenario in which anybody could be sued for any “infliction” of emotional distress. Somebody could walk up to one of us, tell him that his shirt is ugly, and hurt his feelings and pride in his sense of fashion. No problem, we think, for we can simply sue them for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress. It was clearly intentional and it clearly did cause emotional distress. Though a radical example, imagine this tort being unleashed without limitations by courts. Your speech, WBC, no matter how hateful, protects us all from such torts.

Even if one disagrees with our observation of the value you bring to free speech tort, your speech adds value to the very conception of free speech that a liberal society operates within. Speech creates a sort of marketplace of ideas. People listen to good ideas and allow them to proliferate and mix with other good ideas, creating even more good ideas that go on to do the same. People also reject bad ideas and can only do so when they see and understand these ideas and why they are bad. John Stuart Mill, the liberal political and ethical philosopher, noted the importance that speech played for this very purpose.

Christopher Hitchens argues that free speech is not a right to say something, but a right to hear something that is said.

Adding to the marketplace’s ability to weed out bad ideas, it is also aids the free spread of knowledge that speech not be subject to any prior restraints. As Hayek said, “the mind cannot foresee its own advance.” And as Christopher Hitchens forcefully argues in this video, your right to speak freely is also our right to hear you uncensored, and to be exposed to all possible ideas no matter how unpopular, particularly on issues of civic importance such as war. The day we gleefully silence speech like yours is the day we admit that there is a group of people which is fit and proper to determine all the new ideas we will ever be presented with. We are simply not willing to outsource the responsibility for our learning to a central board. We can only learn how absurd you are, WBC, as long as you are free to open your mouths in demonstration of the fact.

Your speech is very clearly bad. Most reasonable people find themselves appalled at everything you say, rejecting nearly every word that goes up on your website or appears on your signs. But this is exactly why your speech is valuable. It causes people to develop better ideas about tolerance and acceptance. It challenges people’s commonly held beliefs about everything from free speech, religious tolerance, social change, and more. You enter into the marketplace and gives good ideas more credence. For that, you add so much more value to a liberal society, the value of converting theoretical rights into tangible actions.

1920s civil libertarian and ACLU lawyer Arthur Hays wrote “Thought must be free. Men cannot think unless they express themselves. Is this an absolute? Yes, just as the right to think is an absolute. Are there no exceptions? None whatever. Has not society the right to protect itself against noxious ideas? No.” It’s almost as if he wrote that with you in mind. So, hats off to you, Westboro Baptist Church. Your speech is despicable and rejects nearly every value that a good libertarian believes in, but that is exactly why your speech is needed more than ever in a free society.

 

Sincerely & For Liberty,

James Padilioni, Jr.
Zachary Slayback