The vile Westboro Baptist Church, made up of right-wing Christian fundamentalists who protest the funerals of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, has been the subject of an ongoing lawsuit. In March 2006, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder was being laid to rest when Fred Phelps and his family showed up with signs that read, among other things, “God Hates You,” “Thank God for IEDs,” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”
Snyder’s family sought damages, claiming defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Yesterday, a federal jury in Baltimore ordered the hate church to pay up — awarding the Snyders $10.9 million.
Al Snyder, father of the slain Marine, said he considered filing the lawsuit for a long time before going forward and that he hoped the judgment would make it harder for the church to continue such protests.
“It’s hard enough burying a 20-year-old son, much less having to deal with something like this,” he said, recalling that some of the other signs at the funeral included “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “Thank God for IEDs.”
“As far as their picketing goes, they want to do it in front of a courthouse, they want to do it in a public park, I could care less. But I couldn’t let them get away with doing this to our military,” Al Snyder said.
Snyder’s attorney told jurors to pick an amount “that says don’t do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again,” according to The Associated Press. The award includes $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages, a clerk in the judge’s chambers said.
Of course, Westboro Baptist Church and the Phelps family don’t have $10.9 million, suggesting the suit could force the cult into bankruptcy.
That is, if it comes to that. In the short term, there will be an appeal, which the Phelps’ are confident will go their way.
Church founder Fred Phelps said the church would appeal the decision, adding it would “take about five minutes to reverse that thing.”
“This will elevate me to something important,” Phelps told reporters. “This was an act of futility.”
Later, Phelps said the case was about “putting a preacher on trial for what he preaches.”
“All it was, was a protestation by the government of the United States against the word of God. They don’t want me preaching that God is punishing the country by killing their servicemen.”
In fact, the jury award hasn’t dissuaded the lunatics at all — they have three more funeral protests scheduled for this week.
As for whether yesterday’s verdict may withstand an appeal, there’s some question about whether the Phelps’ hate-speech is protected.
Ronald K. L. Collins, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington, said such restrictions pose certain dangers, however. “The dangerous principle here is runaway liability in a way that would put the First Amendment in serious jeopardy,” Mr. Collins said. “I dread to think what it would do to political protests in this country if it were allowed the win.”
Maybe, maybe not. I’d certainly welcome the opinions of the lawyers in the audience, but I know there are already time, place, and manner restrictions on protest speech. No one is saying these lunatics can’t share their disgusting message, they’re just limiting their ability to disrupt funeral services. If the Phelps wanted to host a protest in a public park, and were denied a permit, I’d argue that’s a free-speech restriction.
But shouting at a grieving family during a funeral sounds a bit like shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.