killed in iraq and afghanistan, holding anti-gay signs such as "got hates fags" and "thank god for dead soldiers." you know about the case. you know about it. you have seen the protest. now we want to hear your views on this case. 202 is the area code -- you can also send us a tweet at twitter.com/c-spanwj. here is a take on it from "usa today" this morning. court struggles with the supreme -- free-speech question. that is "usa today." "the new york times" lead editorial. margie phelps will be a guest on this program in 45 minutes as well as timothy nieman who filed and amicus brief on behalf of the vfw. "the wall street journal" yesterday opined on this case and they agree with "the new york times" essentially. this is their conclusion in their editorial from yesterday. your turn. we want to hear your opinions. josh from gainesville, florida, independent line. caller: i noticed in that newspaper article they mentioned the skopie case in 1979 but i read the oral argument transcript from yesterday and they did even mentioned that case and ms. phelps did not mention that. i thought it was an incredibly strong president and i'm wondering if maybe you or ms. phelps at some point would comment on whether it would -- why it was not mentioned by her or the justice. host: veronica. california. democrat. caller: good morning. this is what i find the bigges problem with the united states of america but we were founde on christian values. so, viewing the tea party as saying we want to take our country back in the constitution and what not, i think first and foremost being founded on christian values we should look at what the bible states an when we look at this minister, the bible also stays for us that theres going to be false profits and false ministers but we are to go and listen to what people are saying and what is coming out of their mouths. althou they disagree with gays and whatever, the bible also states thou shalt not judge of this minister should be teaching these people. one of the biggest sinces. host: lancaster, pennsylvania. what do you think was in my caller: i think you have to go with free-speech. what about the argument on the other side cop -- host: what about the argument on the other side raised by the snyder family that this is emotional distress, the case of a private funeral and related to the protests, in their view, that the phelps were enacted? caller: that is a tough one because i guess that is why we have a supreme court. my question is, we have people are arrested and we have free speech zones at the rnc and dnc conventions, g-20 meetings. they just lock these people up. and i don't understand it. it is a complete hypocrisy on both counts. host: nebraska. bob, democrat. caller: good morning. these people, they are a very small group and how they possibly get any kind of coverage is just absolutely beyond me. i believe wholeheartedly in free-speech. they have the right to say what they want. i don't agree with it in any way, shape, or form. but in the same case, these people are disparaging those that have passed on. i am a veteran. and a lot of those are members of my unit that are sitting under -- i don't like these people at all. host: that said. legally, do you think they have a right to do what they are doing. caller: yes, i do. legally i do think they have a right to do it. but i also -- well, i don't want to get into too far what i could think this happened. host: marshall tweets in -- joan -- from "usa today" lists the key cases. first, she list the new york times vs. sullivan. she also lists gertz v. robert welch. this is what will -- one of the issues that came up yesterday, whether or not this was a private or public event, a private or public person. hustler magazine v. falwell in 1988. finally she lists milkovich v. lorrain journal. so, that could also come into play in this decision. , on washington, d.c., on the independent line. caller: first of all -- what i take exception with the previous caller. the country was founded on questions on the value of allowing others to practice their religion as well. and because of that i think you have to realize that if you restricted speech other than where public safety that fire in the theater is involved, if you restrict this you throw out the baby in the bath water and by letting the people speak freely we find out just how ugly they really are. host: breeze on the republican line in louisville, ky. -- bruce. go ahead with your comment. it caller: my comment is that your freedom of speech is protected, yes, but this is more of a hate crime and not a freedom of speech issue for the court to rule on. i don't know anywhere where you could go and hold up a sign and says god hates you and that would be perfectly fine. if you are targeting a certain group of people, the funerals you are targeting, and holding up signs where i just saw, that is a hate crime. and using the word hate in their signs. host: in fact, that is one of the issues of some of the justices raised, was the sign, they god hates you sign because it uses the word you. hmaryland. i agree but the caller mentioned that it should be a hate crime. -- i agree with but jamar. i and a former marine myself. the father showed all kinds of great restraint. basic christian humility, he did not strength of the people themselves. i don't think i would have had the same level of restraint. what is legal is not always expedient. i think a lot of these pastors need to keep it in mind. people pick and choose what they are going to preach on or believe. host: are you saying that they do not have the legal right to do what they are doing at military funerals? caller: i do not know of the currently do but i think they should not. it is not right. host: indiana. john. independent line. caller: thank you, cable, for c- span and thank you c-span for being c-span. i have seen these people and evansville, it is seems the families right to peacefully assemble is being violated. host: this tweet -- caller comes from a longview, texas. charlie on the republican line. go ahead with your comment. caller: these people are burning the flag and sang god hates you and god hates america, are not americans. i lived through this when vietnam was the 11. they done the same dam thing. whatey'd don't do it like merrill haggard's song says, get the hell out of our country. if they don't love it, go to where the sign says. that is all i have to say. host: tweet -- today is the ninth anniversary of the start of the afghanistan war. here is the lead story in "the wall street journal" this morning. we will discuss this later but former ambassador to pakistan, former ambassador to iraq and former state department official for near east affairs, ryan crocker. the next call is from topeka, kansas. jan on our democrats' line. jan? you know what? i punched up the wrong number and i apologize. hang on, jan. caller: yes, hi. i know this family very well and they are a continuing embarrassment to topeka. i wanted everyone to know that this is a very small group of people. it consists of one family -- fred phelps i think has 13 or 14 children and many, many grandchildren and now great- grandchildren. and that is about whole group. nothing more than that one group of people and they thrive on being more outrageous and doing more outrageous things than the next. topeka has been very tolerant because we don't ow what else do. but they are certainly not reesentative of topeka. and i am just so embarrassed by every time they mention our city. host: you say you know them well. through their activities or do you see them out and about? caller tir children went to school with my children. and now their grandchildren are going to school with my grandchildren and they are just perfectly lovely children when you get them away from them. they actually live in a compound within e city limits of to be got -- topeka. their activities are just completely around the family. they don't allow the children to participate in any kind of extra curricular activities. host: they don't call school? they sent in to public schools? caller: public schools. for all accounts, they are very good students and when they grow up and they are very good workers, very well educated, very polite. if the same laws that apply to today was applied back in the days when fred phelps's children were younger, were tiny, he would have been brought up on a child abuse charges. he beat the children severely. host: is that opinion or fact? caller: it is a fact. it is a well-known fact. in fact, selling candy and a store -- i mean, he would take them to a shopping center and put them out of a car and told them not to come home until they sold a certain amount of candy. host: has that been reported? caller: yes. in fact, he was sued by the candy company because he refused to pay the bill. we all have lived through this. for years and years. i know people who are on the police department who have dealt with this. and we are just sick of it. we are tired of it. host: that said. do they have a right, in your view, to do what they do at military funerals? caller: absolutely not. they are provocative. they get in your face and they know just how far to go up to the line and not cross it because several of them are attorneys. host: thank you for your input this morning. here is a picture in "the washington post" of former representative karen mccarthy, she was a democrat in missouri. years in congress and on troubled note. -- ended on troubled note. she was an early those of -- voice of dissent against the invasion of iraq but whose career crumbled and it's an ethics breach and a struggle with alcoholism died october 5 at an alzheimer's care center in kansas. in addition to all time disease, she had bipolar disorder that had gone undiagnosed for more than a decade, her family announced last year. she was crowned one of the lucky 13 democrats who won a house seat in 1994, the year of the gop landslide. beside her to thousand to vote against the war in iraq, are that is the record in the house was undistinguished, she pen -- spent much of recovery in the minority and admitted she had not sponsored a lot of bills. she was regarded as a centrist democrat who saw consensus on such major issues as the 1996 welfare reform law and efforts to balance the budget. the kansas city star reported that the turnover in her personal office is so great that an informal karen mccarthy staff alumni association has formed an new inductees are taken out for drinks when they depart because of some of the turmoil in her office. her career unraveled quickly. in late march 2003 she fell headfirst down an escalator in the rayburn house office building after leaving a late- night house session. soon afterward, she issued a statement announcing her decision to seek treatment for alcoholism. jay, republican, frederick, maryland. good morning. caller: i don't see this as a free-speech case at all. it really is more of a responsibility for your speech. if you want to make a political statement, that's fine. but this was at a very private time. it had a no affect on the people who heard it and it is a question of can you go win -- in and have no responsibility for people who you know you are going to hurt. host: california. ellen on the independent line. caller: what the gentleman just said. recently in this country we are all aghast at the bullying that goes on in high school that causes people distress to the point they would commit suicide. this is nothing but adults doing the bullying and setting a very bad example and perhaps we should have an amendment regarding ethics. host: phelps speech -- from concord, north carolina, in mailing in -- branch, louisiana. john, republican line. talking about protesting at the military funerals case heard yesterday at the supreme court. tell us your opinion. caller: these people are engaging in acts of extreme provocation. i really, truly believe there is no way in the world that they are doing anything other than that. it is a shame that they can't be kept at a great distance from these people, especially when people have lost loved ones defending this country. it is just a terrible shame. host: let's add this little fact. mr. snyder did not say the protesters during the funeral. he saw a news report about a during the week afterwards. does it change your opinion? they were kept away. they followed the laws in this city, in maryland, where the funeral was held. caller: i was not aware of that. the thing is, though, these people are, again, engaging in extreme provocation. there are people who did see them who could be provoked, who could -- and i am not advocating this -- but they could attack them and at some point in time i would not be surprised if violence want to be the end result of some of their foolishness. host: georgia. hi, joan. caller: i am a believer of do unto others. somebody in their family will have a funeral, stand outside their church and protest. because it is freedom of speech, that is the only way to do these children die for them to have that right, it is so disrespectful. maybe, if they don't believe in it, they should be taken away from them. host: the next call is from tennessee, kim on beat republican line. please, go ahead? caller: i have a couple of issues with it. for one, it could incite a riot, which i cannot entertain in that either. and it seems like a personal attack -- i was not aware that at the funeral they were not able to be seen. however, my question is, one, dead at a family -- did the family see them coming in or out of the cemetery? host: thank you. just a reminder, turn down the volume on the tv. you get feedback and you will not able to hear yourself. you can hear everything for that would clearly through the telephone. from "the wall street journal" this morning -- taking your calls on the protest in the military funerals. this tweet -- jim on our democrats' line. what is your view? caller: i would just like to say, i wonder why these people are protesting at a funeral. george bush is the one who sent the troops over there. it they are so against that, why weren't they at george bush's house protesting and where were they when george bush illegally sent our troops in an immoral illegal war? host: do you think they have the right to protest at a funeral? caller:no, they do not have the right. it is not their funeral. i tend to think if they incited a riot and every single one of the family members were killed, don't put me on the jury because i will give the guy temporary insanity. host: robert, philadelphia, mississippi. independent line. what is your view? caller: my view is that, i would like to make a comment. i think the freedom of speech has been taken too far. people talk about the freedom of speech is that this country was founded on christian values and all of that. i think all of that is just plain not true. i don't think the founders was christians. and i would like for somebody -- if they think this country was founded on christian values i would like for somebody to call sqawd tell me what's valley means. host: if you want to continue this conversation you can do it on twitter which is going on right now we are trying to read some of these. as well, you can continue this conversation on our facebook page. go to facebook.com/c-span. -- no-in c san francisco. good morning to you. caller: imagine muslims praising the deaths of u.s. troops i think the response of the u.s. would be much different than what it is now. basically my question is, my comment is, is there any correlation between christian putting down the steps or a muslim putting down the debts. when muslims -- if muslims were to do this, where there be punishment did to anti-terrorism laws? host: independent line. sean? caller: i would love to said, i love your tie. host: we want to move on to corpus christi, texas. arthur, republican michael caller: -- arthur, a republican line. caller: i think the church is okay -- if you want to call it a church -- as far as first amendment rights are concerned. with all of this business is going on, the first amendment right must be the primary thing to be considered here. host: what about the right to privacy? caller: as far as the actions of the church, look of their sides. one of them said thank god for breast cancer. anybody with any sense has got to realize this is some kind of a fringe group. i think it would be stretching the imagination to call it a church. christian doctrine says we will all be judged and apparently they are forgetting that they are in the group, too. as far as privacy is concerned, one of your previous callers said local ordinances can be made to deal with things like this. i think if somebody wants some privacy at their funeral there ought to be an ordinance available to provide that. other than that, i think the church group is so ridiculous. i think we have all devoted enough time to the subject and should go on wearing about more important things, you know? host: this is not free speech, it is free speech of use. -- abused. this is to cool, they should be jailed. -- too cruel, they should be jailed. caller: i see several problems. i know they are claiming free- speech but i don't think the founding fathers thought that something like this would be allowed. you do have the freedom of speech, in my opinion, unless your speech infringes on other freedoms and rights. it looks basically like harassment because they are targeting a specific group and person which, i don't know about you, but they kind of fit the description of a hate crime in my eyes. if you went and did some of this stuff to an individual, like sit in front of somebody's house with signs claiming some of the things they are saying, i think that is pretty much harassment. most people can go downtown in most cities and file for a restraining order for conduct like this. host: again, one of the issues that the justices raised yesterday and that margie phelps responded to, was the issue of stalking. 34hunter tweets in -- the next caller comes from rockville, maryland. independent line. what you think about this protesting at military funerals case? caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. probably my first time calling for almost seven years. host: welcome back. caller: before i make my comments, i do want to make a critical comments of c-span. mainly towards you, peter. i critical comments in respect -- my critical comment is respect is i like when you tell people to turn down their radio, however, i had a situation and the reason i did not call for a long time is because when i called to make my comment, which i felt was very important, i was cut off without even getting 10 words and. and i felt that my comment was very important, especially when i waited on the line so long, like many people do. and i think that when someone tells me that you got to move on, you know the rules about turning the radio down, i don't think everybody does because i turn my radio down but i know that not everybody does that. i listened to c-span on the radio exclusively. host: thank you for that comment. what is your opinion on that case? caller: my comment is, those protesters, i think they are doing this out of disrespect and ift i don't think that' -- they want to protest, there should be a better time. they got a better time to do that and they should give respect to grieving families. host: do you think they are stepping over what you think should be the law? caller: in this case, i think so. it has to be out of respect. people have to have respect. and i think today that has been -- we miss that today. so many things -- anything goes. and there has to be respect. when someone -- a family is grieving over their lost loved one, i think that should be respected. host: ernest, thank you. please, don't wait seven years to cal