In response to Acid: As an A-the-ist recent answer to a question : when does freedom of speech ...?

I think the problems arise when we draw lines at all. Right now, I'm in favor of stopping Fred Phelps' church from picketing funerals. I wouldn't be if the law allowed me to get a group together and picket Fred's Church but there are laws on the books that make it illegal to picket a church. That same church can go picket a family planning clinic, a gay person's funeral and their freedom of speech is protected, but if you go back and try to picket the holy building of their superstition on a Sunday Morning you can be thrown in jail If we all have total freedom of speech, then we can counter hate speech coming from a church with free speech; however; when you give a group immunity from having the same tactics used against them that they use against others, the system becomes unfair