''I guess we won the protest, because they left first.''

Julie Aker, a student at Brooklyn Tech, in New York, who was one of nearly 200 who staged an impromptu protest to scare away 5 of the heinous "Westboro" churchmembers who held up anti-gay signs. The students' victorious show of unity reportedly occurred because "word of mouth" spread through the school that the Kansas-based hate group had shown up in their neighborhood. (New York Times)

''Notwithstanding the distasteful and repugnant nature of the words being challenged in these proceedings, we are constrained to conclude that the defendants' signs and [what it has on its Web sites] are constitutionally protected.''

Judge Robert B King of the 4th US Court of Appeals in Richmond ruling in favor of the infamous church run by the Phelps family of Kansas. The gay-hating church protested the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a Marine who was being buried in Westminster, MD. His father sued several of the Phelps family members and won $11 million for invasion of privacy, but that award was reduced to $5 milliion. Judge King's court effectively dismisses even that reduced amount by finding that the church's hate-filled speech is protected, even at a funeral where they're holding signs that say ''Thank God for dead soldiers.'' Phelps adult daughter is said to be a practicing lawyer. (Baltimore Sun)