[Xantar]

Getting into a court battle with the Westboro people is exactly what they want. They are professional agitators. They go out and picket events, shouting the most vile and disgusting things you could think of, and hope that somebody attacks them or does something for which they can sue. They are scum, they make a living off of being scum, and they don't care if everybody knows it. Unfortunately, the First Amendment says they can do it.

Just think of them as real life trolls. I don't know if they actually believe what they are saying, but the way to deal with them is much the same way. I'm a big fan of the college students who held a counter-protest (vastly outnumbering the Westboro people) at which they held up signs mocking the Westboro hate speech: stuff like, "God hates the new Facebook" or "God hates Justin Bieber." Ok, that second one might not be mockery; the student might actually believe it.