First Amendment
Church on Trial for ‘Thank God For Dead Soldiers’ Funeral Protest
Posted Oct 26, 2007, 09:36 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The father of a marine killed in Iraq is seeking damages from a church that sponsored a protest at his son’s funeral in a federal trial now under way in Baltimore.
Albert Snyder’s suit claims invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, the New York Times reports.
The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., contends God is killing soldiers to punish America for homosexuality. At the funeral for Snyder’s son, Matthew, protesters held up signs reading “God Hates You” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”
Judge Richard Bennett told jurors they would have to decide “whether the defendant’s actions would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, whether they were extreme and outrageous, and whether these actions were so offensive and shocking as to not be entitled to First Amendment protection,” the Associated Press reports.
More on the Westboro Baptist Church in the July 2006 ABA Journal story, "Picket Fencing.
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Posted by Natalie - 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks, 7 hours, 53 minutes ago
I have a nephew who has already served one tour in Afghanistan and one tour in Iraq. In December, he will be going back to Afghanistan for another eighteen month tour. If anything happens to him, I would need a fabulous ABA criminal defense lawyer if these yahoos were to show up at his funeral saying he deserved to die.
I hope that this so-called church is found liable, and Mr. Snyder is awarded enough money to keep any of the “church” members from being able to afford to travel to anyone else’s funeral for years.
I just realized I am totally incapable of looking at this issue from a legal standpoint. I can only think of the pain these idiots are bringing to the families of all these dead soldiers.