Supreme Court Sides With Westboro Baptist Church on Marine Funeral Protest

Published March 02, 2011

The Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, ruled Wednesday that members of the renegade Westboro Baptist Church have a constitutionally protected right to protest military funerals, though their demonstrations are widely despised and deplored.

The case presented the justices with a high-profile question about the breadth of First Amendment speech and assembly protections, with a majority of justices ruling that these fundamental rights outweigh the concerns of grieving family members who would rather not deal with the obnoxious protesters.

For years, the protesters have popped up at tens of thousands of places across the country to voice their displeasure with government policies they think promote homosexuality. They did so in 2006 at the funeral for Matthew Snyder, a marine killed in Iraq. He was not gay.

But the funeral provided the protesters an opportunity to speak out against government policies, though there's little -- if anything -- to connect Snyder to the Westboro cause.

Albert Snyder certainly didn't want anything do with the picketers when he buried his son. "I want them to stop doing this to our military men and women," Snyder told Fox News in October before the arguments. "I want the judges to hear that this case is not about free speech, it's about targeted harassment."

In the days leading up to the funeral, Westboro parishioners, including leader Fred Phelps, notified local authorities of their intention to picket the service. They were kept 1,000 feet away from the church and because of the use of an alternative entrance for church-goers there was no disruption to the memorial. Seven protestors held numerous signs including some that read, "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "God Hates ****," and "You're Going to Hell." There were no arrests.

Snyder filed a lawsuit against Phelps based on the protest and a subsequent post on the Westboro website about his son Matthew.

A jury awarded Snyder nearly $11 million in damages for the intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. That award was later cut in half and then the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals set aside the decision in its entirety, ruling that the protests were absolutely protected by the First Amendment.

That decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.

A group of 21 news organizations joined a brief defending Westboro's case. While calling their views "inexplicable and hateful," they expressed concern that a ruling against the church would chill the activities of anyone who wants to speak out on a controversial issue and "threatens to expand dramatically the risk of liability for news media coverage and commentary."

One of the media groups that joined the brief is Dow Jones whose parent company also owns Fox News

Film at 11... 😠

Under Sharia Law, this crap would not be tolerated.

:-k 🤔 hmmmm....

What they should have also went for was slander and defamation.... think he would of had a better chance at something.

Just curious, but why haven't a bunch of militant gays, sex workers and strippers staged a protest at the Westboro Baptist Church services?

flyover state nutjob church.

they're out looking for CROS... 😟

I despise these maggots but the decision was the right one. Democracy can be messy....

^
+1

I just finished reading the entire Opinion. The reasoning is sound (IMO), no matter how much I detest "Westboro" actions.

we should make an amendment.... kind of like the yelling fire in the theatre thing... 😟

There is no Amendment for that. However, dicta did make reference to Maryland having passed a funeral picketing law enacted after the fact.

I know... and it was the right decision.... I just really hate to see them getting more publicity and declare some sort of victory.... the bassards... 😠

There needs to be a Gay Pride festival set up right across the street from WBC.

A permanent gay pride festival.

Just need sure to coordinate with the police and get a parade permit!

I bet TW could arrange that.... 🤣

Robert I hope you know I was calling the westborrough wackos maggots not the SCOTUS.

You deal with the law for a living, so your opinion counts very highly here.
But I find it hard to believe that a decent lawyer couldn't prove that the Westboro church was purposefully provoking the funeral crowd.

Face it, someone couldn't sit outside a church in Harlem holding a sign that said "god loves dead negroes".
Law enforcement would remove that person even without waiting for a local ammendment and they would do so swiftly for the safety of all involved.

The first ammendment allows the Westboro church to state their beliefs, and I would never want my government taking away that right. But it does NOT allow them to do so with provocation and bad intent.

Just like the previously mentioned Fire/Theater example.

Actually....this hilariously happens all the time. It does NOT typically happen at the funeral of servicemen, however. These nutbags protest at a lot of different events. When they do it winds up looking like some kinda ho mo circus. It's hilarious.