In an 8-1 ruling Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, which has made a name for itself in recent years for its angry, anti-gay protests during U.S. military funerals, has the right to do so under the First Amendment.

“Speech is powerful,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in explanation of the ruling. “It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow and – as it did here – inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker.”

The ruling, unfortunately, was the best call that the Supreme Court justices could have made. The First Amendment is one of the cornerstone foundations of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. itself, and putting a limit on that freedom starts the country down a slippery slope that would force the government to determine what is and isn’t free speech – but that doesn’t make it the morally sound call.

In affording the members of this radical church their freedom of speech, the Supreme Court has also enabled the church to trample on the rights given to others under Pursuit of Happiness, another cornerstone of the country. Aside from the fact that the protests target a specific social demographic with signs like “God Hates Fags,” represents a radically unpatriotic viewpoint with signs like “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and completely disregard the principles of love and forgiveness laid out by Jesus Christ himself in the Bible with signs like “God is Your Enemy” and “Too Late to Pray,” the church tramples on the privacy rights of the mourners attending the funerals at which the church pickets.

Under the First Amendment, anyone can express any view they so desire in a public place or during a public forum, but how and why is a funeral procession, filled with friends and family of a deceased individual who only wish to mourn their loss, considered an appropriate public forum for someone to express ideas of hate and discrimination?

It shouldn’t be.

In a country that is supposed to be the foremost nation in the advancement of democratic ideals, there is something fundamentally wrong when the right choice is to allow radical protesters to praise the deaths of their own country’s soldiers during a military funeral service. The recent actions of the Westboro Baptist Church, which also picketed the funeral of a 9-year-old girl who was killed during the Tucson shooting on Jan. 8, have been downright disgusting and distasteful, and no funeral service should ever be considered an appropriate place to express such views.