Albert Snyder lost a lower court case and was ordered to pay court costs of $16,500 to the Westboro Baptist Church in a dispute over the church’s protests at military funerals. The church believes that military deaths are God’s punishment for tolerance of homosexuality in the U.S. Albert Snyder’s son, Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, was not gay, but died in a Humvee accident over four years ago while serving in Iraq. The church has showed up at military funerals across the country, making inflammatory comments such as ”Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” The church claims its actions are constitutionally protected speech, while Snyder claims it is an incitement to violence.
Snyder won the first lawsuit in a federal court in Baltimore, where a jury awarded him $10.9 million in damages in October 2007. A judge later reduced the award to $5 million. Last September, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the verdict, finding Westboro’s protest was constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court agreed last month to decide whether the protesters’ actions are protected by the First Amendment. The case will be argued in the fall.
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Martin Crawford
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