U.S. court to weigh free speech rights at funerals

The following article is from CTV.ca

The U.S. Supreme Court will weigh today whether a fundamentalist church had the right to protest a soldier's funeral with signs such as "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "You're Going to Hell."


The father of a Marine slain in Iraq has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a $5-million civil verdict against members of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas.

The church, led by Rev. Fred Phelps, has gained worldwide notoriety for its picketing of U.S. military funerals. The church says the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are punishment against America for homosexuality and abortion.

The case will test the United States' strong freedom of speech laws and whether the right of the father, Albert Snyder, to grieve privately for his son, outweighs the church members' right to say whatever they want.

The church has long welcomed the attention from the media and counter protesters, and say they won't change their ways, no matter what the court rules.

"No American should ever be required to apologize for following his or her conscience," Margie Phelps, a daughter of Fred Phelps, and a lawyer for the church, said.

Snyder undertook the lawsuit after the funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, was protested by the fundamentalist group in March 2006.

He won an $11-million verdict against the Westboro Church for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The award was eventually reduced to $5 million before a federal appeals court threw out the entire verdict, citing freedom of speech laws under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Snyder says the case is about harassment, not freedom of speech.

"The Phelpses' freedom of speech should have ended where it conflicted with Mr. Snyder's freedom to participate in his son's funeral, which was intended to be a solemn religious gathering," his lawyer said in court.

"I had one chance to bury my son and it was taken from me," Snyder said.

The Westboro Baptist church also attempted to protest at the funeral of Canadian Tim McLean in Winnipeg, who was stabbed to death while riding a Greyhound bus in 2008.

Border guards were instructed not to allow the group into Canada. The U.K. also banned the group from entering there in 2009 saying the group was inciting hatred.