590
(1 vote, average 5.00 out of 5)
Written by Lisa Neff, Staff writer
Mar 25, 2010
Margie M. Phelps, Fred Phelps and Margie J. Phelps demonstrate outside a federal courthouse in Baltimore, where a jury was deliberating whether the church and its members can be held legally liable in a suit brought by Albert Snyder, the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder. The Phelps clan demonstrated at Snyder’s funeral in Westminster, Md., in March of 2006. – Photo: AP Photo/Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum
The Rev. Fred Phelps will take his traveling anti-gay road show to Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a lawsuit over Phelps’ pickets at the funerals of U.S. soldiers.
Phelps and the members of his Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., have for years picketed the funerals of servicemembers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq – not because they object to the wars, but to publicize their claim that God is punishing U.S. soldiers for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
One such picket in Maryland, where the Westboro clan carried signs that read “God Hates You,” “Thank God for IEDs” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” prompted the father of fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder to sue Phelps, Rebekah A. Phelps-Davis, Shirley Phelps-Roper and the church.
Albert Snyder said he is haunted by the demonstration at his son’s service, and he has sued for emotional distress.
At the trial level, a jury in Baltimore awarded the father $5 million in damages.
A federal appeals court, however, dismissed the suit on First Amendment grounds, finding that the protesters’ messages were protected speech.
“As utterly distasteful as these signs are, they involve matters of public concern, including the issues of homosexuals in the military, the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church and the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens,” appeals Judge Robert B. King wrote for the majority.
King further stated that the signs contained “hyperbolic rhetoric” protected by the First Amendment.
Snyder appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which accepted the case in early March.
The three stated questions before the High Court in Snyder v. Phelps are whether:
- The Court’s decision in Hustler Magazine Inc. v. Falwell applies to two private people.
- The First Amendment’s tenet of free speech trumps the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and peaceful assembly.
- An individual attending a private funeral constitutes a captive audience entitled to state protection from unwanted communication.
In the Hustler case, which was prompted by a parody suggesting that Falwell engaged in incestuous sex in an outhouse, the High Court ruled that the First Amendment barred the minister from suing the magazine for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The Court is expected to hear oral arguments in Snyder v. Phelps in the fall, with Snyder represented by attorney Sean Summers of York, Pa., and the Phelps family represented by attorney Margie J. Phelps of Topeka.
In the meantime, the Phelps family continues to picket funerals. Its schedule for March, according to Phelps’ Web site, included pickets at the funerals of Sgt. Aaron M. Arthur in South Carolina and Lance Cpl. Garrett W. Gamble in Texas.
A demonstration also was planned at the funeral of actor Peter Graves because, Phelps maintains, the entertainment industry promotes a homosexual agenda.
