Marine’s Dad Gets $11M for Funeral Picketing

Constitutional Law

Marine’s Dad Gets $11M for Funeral Picketing

Posted Oct 31, 2007, 05:48 pm CST
By Martha Neil

In a verdict that is sure to catch the attention of First Amendment advocates, a federal jury in Baltimore has awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages to a father of a fallen Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of a fringe Kansas church.

The jury found that the Westboro Baptist Church and three leaders invaded the father's privacy and intentionally inflicted emotional distress by picketing the March 2006 funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who died in Iraq, reports the Washington Post. "The church maintains that God is punishing the United States, killing and maiming troops, because the country tolerates homosexuality," the newspaper explains.

(For more on the Westboro Baptist Church, see the the July 2006 ABA Journal story, "Picket Fencing.")

Their protest of Snyder's funeral included a sign stating "Thank God for dead soldiers," according to the Baltimore Sun.

The amount of damages awarded "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants," says U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett, who presided at the trial.

It is also "an awful lot of money for compensatory damages," Mark Graber, a University of Maryland law professor, tells the newspaper. "This was in a public space. While the actions are reprehensible, the First Amendment protects a lot that's reprehensible."

Nearly half of the states in the country, at least, have enacted or proposed laws to limit funeral protests, in reaction to such shock tactics. Although they raise obvious First Amendment issues, it appears that their content-neutral restrictions limiting protests within, for example, 100 to 500 feet of the entrance to a cemetery may pass constitutional muster, according to a New York Times article published last year.

A funeral home, for instance, "seems high on the list of places where people legitimately could be or should be protected from unwanted messages," Michael Dorf, a Columbia Law School professor, told the Times.

As the judge saw it in this case, the conflict between the First Amendment rights of free speech and religious expression and the family's right to privacy is decided by a balancing test, the Sun reports. "You must balance the defendants' expression of religious belief with another citizen's right to privacy," he instructed jurors yesterday.

Updated 2:14 p.m. CST 11/01/2007

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Posted by Tricia - 1 year, 1 month, 1 day, 2 hours, 43 minutes ago

Being gay is not right. It is a sin but picketing at a funneral is immoral and disrespectful. Just because I do not believe the same as someone else doesn’t mean I should picket their funneral. That is just plain STUPID. Those people picketing…are they without sin? Are the pure and clean? NO! No one is without sin. We all sin. The bible says though shalt NOT judge. What they are doing is judging and it is a SIN! I do not believe in gays and do not stand for it but I am not going to stand there and dam them for it cuz I also am human and sin too. A christian is supose to love one another and help one another not kick them while they are down. Picketing a funeral is in my oppinion kicking someone while they are down. Instean help them and show them God’s love and help them to learn God’s ways. I am a sinner saved by the grace of God and I not pure and perfect. I try to live a good life but I will always fall short of being clean and perfect like God.
Posted by unknown - 1 year, 1 month, 1 day, 32 minutes ago

Im sorry but you just started your statement off with “being gay is not right.“ And then you have the audacity to insist that “judging is a sin”? Take a look at your self. By virture of your comments you areclealy a sinner yourself.
Posted by J.D. - 1 year, 1 month, 1 day, 7 minutes ago

OF COURSE, what the media failed to mention is that the guy who runs this “church” is Fred Phelps—an avowed DEMOCRAT who has run for office multiple times as a Democrat in Kansas. He received over 30% of the vote in the Democrat primary for the office of U.S. Senator in 1992. He’s been a strong supporter of Al Gore and also thinks Fidel Castro is just wonderful. He’s certainly not the “radical conservative” that the media is leading you to believe.
Posted by Sidney Jones - 1 year, 1 month, 7 hours, 20 minutes ago

Please be aware that your caption of “$11M” is not correct. The “M” is the Roman numeral for “thousand” and “MM” is million. A lot of written reports will use “K” to indicate a thousand (such as $11K) but the “K” is a measure of volume not quantity and is incorrect to indicate money.
Posted by patrick - 1 year, 1 month, 6 hours, 28 minutes ago

Remember this dushbag?
Posted by Pedant - 1 year, 1 month, 3 hours, 53 minutes ago

Capital M, representing the Greek prefix Mega- is a standard symbol for million. Logically, you should use M$ for Megadolllars, but that is liable to be confused with M$ (short for (MY$) for Malaysian dollars.
Getting back on point, the amount awarded seems to be disproportionate to the harm caused. I am left with the suspicion that the amount is intended to suppress this sort of protest while evading the constitutional scrutiny that an honest gag order would attract.
Posted by dag - 1 year, 1 month, 3 hours, 41 minutes ago

If MM is million, then how do you represent two-thousand?
Posted by Michelle - 1 year, 1 month, 3 hours, 22 minutes ago

Per our conversation…. I will mention that I think the Court applied the wrong legal test and I imagine there will be an appeal… we can discuss more…. Love you!
Posted by Simple X - 1 year, 1 month, 2 hours, 59 minutes ago

J.D.—

Give me a break you idiot parrot. To say this guy is an “avowed democrat” is the epitome of putting form over substance. He himself has made the statement that the party abandoned him (by embracing homosexuality) and that since he’s not the one who changed, he won’t change parties. He can call himself a tree if he wants—doesn’t mean he’ll start growing leaves. Funny, at one time, he actually did some meaningful work—he played a large role in bringing down Jim Crow in Kansas during the 60’s. But he did it for the controversy, to buck the system, etc. Not out of love for black folks. He’s an attention whore. However, his past civil rights experience is important because it explains the 30% showing in the 1992 primary (which, by the way, was only 49,416 votes). He had just started his current anti-gay campaign in 1991, so nobody really knew who he was except his family and people that remembered him as a zealous civil rights advocate. Now, contrast the ‘92 primary result, with the 1998 gubernatorial primary (post Matthew Sheppard funeral, when Phelps first drew any meaningful national attention) where he received only 15,123 votes. That’s less than 15% of Kansas democrats thought he was fit for the job—his opponent receive 85.3%. In six years, his support dwindled by 70%. Since that time, he’s started protesting the funerals of our soldiers who are KIA. What do you think his numbers would be today? My guess is he might pull 1-2% simply because his evil-incarnate family has inbred to no end. Regardless, your other “facts” are crap too: Phelps actually protested Gore’s Dad’s funeral because Gore, Jr. told him to take a hike when he ramped-up his anti-gay rhetoric in the early 90’s. And he thinks Castro is “wonderful” SOLELY because Castro puts HIV-AIDS victims in concentration camps. Not because of his politics.

Read deeper next time loser.
Posted by Andrea - 1 year, 1 month, 2 hours, 56 minutes ago

“I do not believe in gays.“

You cannot believe in Santa Claus, you cannot believe in the Easter Bunny, but you can’t not believe in the way someone was born.

And I love you too Michelle.
Posted by Prof - 1 year, 1 month, 2 hours, 54 minutes ago

For further information on the group, its beliefs and recent state legislation regarding funeral picketing check see the upcoming Maryland Law Review Article.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=984055
Posted by Willy - 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days, 9 hours, 31 minutes ago

This has to be one of the more amusing comment threads that I have ever seen. We have someone that, apparently, does not believe that there are gay people. Someone that thinks that the Roman Numeral system and the Metric system are related somehow and that “Kilo” which is what K stands for is somehow only related to liters when it actually means 1000 of something. There is a random “dushbag” comment, which probably means douchebag, but I can’t tell who they are referring to. We have “unknown” stating the obvious when he/she said, “by virtue of your comments you are clearly a sinner yourself”. What comment do you mean? The one that says, “I also am human and sin too.“ Thanks for the insight. Also, Andrea don’t tell me that I cannot believe in Santa Claus. I can and do…
Posted by Frances - 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours, 56 minutes ago

Well I strongly believe in the right to express your self in any manner so long as it does not bring harm to another. I also think that if you allow someone like Fred Phelps to express his anger toward people and protest at funerals which he has done then were is the justice. After all why then is he allowed to continue protesting the way he does. Has anyone seen his “i hate gays” website lately? What wrong with this picture. Maybe since this poor man has been awarded such a gratuitous amount that it has establish a presedence for justice against people who are so blatantly absurd do do such a thing. “Whateever!“ Let the poor man mourn in peace.
Posted by Kate Palmer - 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours, 30 minutes ago

He also hates Catholics and the Irish. Who can hate the Irish?
Posted by Frances Calderon - 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours, 53 minutes ago

awwww the weee Irish. No hate from me.
Posted by Rob - 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 12 minutes ago

1. Irrespective of whether one “believe[s] in gays,“ the protestors’ actions are despicable. If the holding is narrow enough to not create much of a precedent, I hope it survives the inevitable constitutional challenge.

2. For the record, in most of the world, in almost all science, and in many industries metric is standard. Thus, k=kilo=thousand; M=mega=million irrespective of whether measuring weight, distance, or volume. Roman numerals, like the Roman Empire, are largely extinct while Hindu-Arabic Numerals are the universal standard.

3. Maybe he’s from Ulster. The English there hate the Irish.
Posted by Naresh - 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 36 minutes ago

I agree with Willy that this is one of the most fun message boards I have ever read. First of all there’s the earnest christian Tricia and the unknown critic of her logical inconsistencies, then there is the statistician, and the angry critic… How can anyone say she doesn’t “believe in gays?“ That someone is just incredibly naive or intentionally blinded. Even the RC church recognizes that there are gays. you have to do that to call it a sin!

And there’s the serious discussion on the metric system versus the Roman system! This is great!!

So, I am glad that the jury stood by the grieving father. I served in the Marines myself, and am proud that i did. I didn’t serve in Iraq, but that’s a matter of chance. Either way, there is a time and place for such things. The last thing a grieving parent should have to endure is a gaggle of half-wits proclaiming that God took his or her child as punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality! It’s ridiculous.

Finally, I can’t seem to make out who hates the Irish, is it the Phelps person? Since there’ s an Irish bar in practically every civilized town on the earth, and maybe a few uncivilized ones too, I’d have to think that very few people hate the Irish.
Posted by The other side - 1 year, 4 weeks, 12 hours, 3 minutes ago

Interesting how the anti-war liberal folk are talking about this in respect of the 1st amendment. These people with their hateful signs are the same level of ilk as the KKK and skin-heads. When the Southern Poverty Law Center put these groups out of business the liberal contingent applauded. Now it is only fitting that the liberals who complain that this is against the 1st amend make a choice - either reverse the hate speech arguments or allow their own side to be disciplined when the line has been crossed. If they do not, their hypocrisy will be shown.
Posted by Lu - 1 year, 4 weeks, 7 hours, 35 minutes ago

This is a case where the verdict could be upheld without implicating the First Amendment at all.
The suit claimed invasion of privacy and intentional infliction. A person has the right to proclaim any idea, no matter how silly or hateful that idea may be to some listeners; that right does not include invading a private ceremony to do it. If this Kansas church wants to hold marches on the city streets while a funeral is going on, the city can’t stop it based on the content of the signs. Any number of First Amendment cases involving Nazis, KKK, etc., have established that.
Disrupting a private funeral service is entirely different—even if the funeral is at a public cemetery. Sustaining an award to this bereaved family damages for the disruption of their opportuniity to grieve in peace is little different from allowing a police officer to intervene if one of these Kansas church members decided to follow the Marine’s father down the street shouting hateful comments into his ear.
Lest there be any doubt about the ability to balance free speech with other interests, the corralling of anti-war demonstrators at Bush appearances into “free speech zones” (usually in locations far from the media) illustrates the ability of government to regulate time and place for free speech even in public spaces.
Posted by LegalBuckeye - 1 year, 3 weeks, 5 days, 13 hours, 8 minutes ago

So minor but the first comment with its inconsistent single and double consonants makes it difficult for me to concentrate on the content of the message. For the record, funeral = 1 “n”, suppose = 2 “n"s, opinion = 1 “p”, and damn needs an “n”.
Posted by LegalBuckeye - 1 year, 3 weeks, 5 days, 12 hours, 48 minutes ago

Ha! Serves me right for my critique! For MY record apparently, suppose actually has no “n"s as I suggested above but rather has 2 “p"s.

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