SCOTUS To Hear Westboro Baptist Free Speech Case

3/10/10-by Paula Brooks
The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether free speech laws protect anti-gay protestors who picket the funerals of US soldiers.

The family of US Marine Matthew Snyder, who was killed in combat in Iraq in 2006, brought the emotionally charged case after Westboro Baptist Church led by preacher Fred Phelps and six relatives arrived at Snyder’s funeral carrying signs that read, “America is doomed,” “Matt in hell” and “Semper Fi fags,” in reference to the Marine motto “Semper Fi.”

The Phelps group protests at the funerals of soldiers, regardless of the sexuality of the deceased military personnel, and use the events to bring publicity to their campaign against gays.

After the funeral was over, Phelps continued to ridicule and condemn Snyder on his website, prompting the dead Marine’s family to sue the preacher before a Maryland court.

The Snyder family claimed Phelps had intruded on a private event and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the bereaved family and had won an initial award of five million dollars.

That award was later overturned on appeal, after The U.S. Fourth Circuit threw out the verdict on First Amendment grounds, ruling that the Westburo protesters were simply exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. That court held while the Phelps remarks were “utterly distasteful,” they were not actual assertions of facts about the family and that they involved matters of public concern.

Phelps says soldiers dying are God’s way of punishing the United States’ tolerance of homosexuality.

Protests launched by Phelps and his klan have been met with disgust across the United States and as a result, roughly 40 states have now passed laws regulating demonstrations at funerals.

The Supreme Court will not take up the case until the fall.