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The U.S. Supreme Court is getting involved in the legal fight over the anti-gay protesters who show up at military funerals with inflammatory messages like "Thank God for dead soldiers."
The Court agreed today to consider whether the protesters' message, no matter how provocative and upsetting, is protected by the Constitution's First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. Members of a Kansas-based church have picketed military funerals to spread their belief that deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
The justices will hear an appeal from the father of a Marine killed in Iraq. Albert Snyder is seeking the reinstatement of a $5 million verdict against the protesters who picketed outside his son's funeral.
A jury in Baltimore awarded Snyder damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy, but a federal appeals court threw out the verdict. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in Snyder v. Phelps that the protesters’ signs contained "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric" protected by the First Amendment.
The funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder was among many that have been picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka. Pastor Fred Phelps and other church members have used the funeral protests to spread their anti-homosexual beliefs. One of the signs at Snyder's funeral combined the U.S. Marine Corps motto with a slur against gay men.
Other signs carried by the Westboro church members read, "America is Doomed," ''God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11," ''Priests Rape Boys" and "Thank God for IEDs," a reference to the roadside bombs that have killed many U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The case will be argued later this year.
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The Court agreed today to consider whether the protesters' message, no matter how provocative and upsetting, is protected by the Constitution's First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. Members of a Kansas-based church have picketed military funerals to spread their belief that deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
The justices will hear an appeal from the father of a Marine killed in Iraq. Albert Snyder is seeking the reinstatement of a $5 million verdict against the protesters who picketed outside his son's funeral.
A jury in Baltimore awarded Snyder damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy, but a federal appeals court threw out the verdict. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in Snyder v. Phelps that the protesters’ signs contained "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric" protected by the First Amendment.
The funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder was among many that have been picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka. Pastor Fred Phelps and other church members have used the funeral protests to spread their anti-homosexual beliefs. One of the signs at Snyder's funeral combined the U.S. Marine Corps motto with a slur against gay men.
Other signs carried by the Westboro church members read, "America is Doomed," ''God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11," ''Priests Rape Boys" and "Thank God for IEDs," a reference to the roadside bombs that have killed many U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The case will be argued later this year.
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