There have even been protest groups who show up to protest the protesters in many cases; not just the one's at the funerals and sometimes as with other groups like the KKK or the Neo-natzis thats the only way to express one's ire at their excersicing their right to assembly.

I am basically in principle with the Court on this one in so far as up holding the 1st amendment even though I too believe that their manner and timing for protest is in poor taste to say the least and that the court should have used this as an opportunity to re-define where is appropriate.

I am sure that the founding fathers knew that the freedom of speech was in some ways a double edged sword and altough they perhaps didnt forsee the formation of some groups ; I am sure that they would agree that for our nation to work everyone should get to freely express their views on any topic in allmost any setting that one saw fit within reason.

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

Originally, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress. However, starting with Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925), the Supreme Court has held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including any local government.