Westboro Baptist and freedom of speech

I agree wholeheartedly with the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Snyder v. Phelps. I am less thrilled with the reasoning used, which relies on a "hierarchy of First Amendment values" that in my view exalts the collective over the individual.

Some have asked where we go now. I think that we should let the Phelpses keep on doing what they are doing, which is whipping up antipathy for their own views, often among people who might otherwise sympathize. The Phelpses perfectly illustrate the principle that the most effective witnesses against a belief system can be its own believers.