About Time This 'Preacher' Got Put Down! by greatmartin on Blogster

(Too bad the family will never see a penny!)

Father of slain Marine wins case against funeral protesters

Pa. man awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages

By Matthew Dolan
Sun reporter
3:56 PM EDT, October 31, 2007

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., the father of a Westminster Marine who was killed in Iraq, today won his case in a Baltimore federal court against members of Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church who protested at his son's funeral last year.

The jury of five women and four men awarded Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages. The amount of punitive damages to be awarded has not yet been decided. The jury deliberated for about two hours yesterday and much of today.

Snyder was the first in the nation to attempt to hold members of Westboro Baptist Church legally liable for their shock protests at military funerals after the church protested the military's inclusion of gays at the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, a 2003 Westminster High School graduate who died March 3, 2006, in a vehicle accident in Anbar province.

In June 2006, Snyder sued the tight-knit fundamentalist Christian church and three of its members individually. The father argued that Westboro's demonstrations exacerbated his pain and suffering in March 2006 while he mourned the death of his only son.

Specifically, he charged that they violated his privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional harm and engaged in a conspiracy to carry out their activities. The jury decided in Snyder's favor on every count.

The church and its members maintained that they did nothing wrong. They based their legal defense on the First Amendment, arguing that their protests were constitutionally protected. Their attorneys told jurors yesterday that Westboro members were expressing closely held religious beliefs about an immoral society, including the military, that has endorsed homosexuality.

Jonathan Katz, the attorney for the church and one of its founders, said that members followed state law during their protest in Westminster because they stood on public property about 1,000 feet from the funeral.

The church's controversial protests have prompted at least 22 states to enact or propose laws to limit the rights of protesters at funerals. Only months after Matthew Snyder's death, Maryland passed a law prohibiting people from picketing within 100 feet of a funeral, memorial, burial or procession.

matthew.dolan@baltsun.com

--
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.": Rudyard Kipling - (1865-1936)

11 comments on About Time This 'Preacher' Got Put Down!

jondude said 9 months ago
I keep wondering why the news refers to that group as a "Church?" They certainly can't be Christians.
greatmartin said 9 months ago
So they can claim non-profit status????[LOL]
itsjustme said 9 months ago
Just read it here in my newspaper today as well.
alfredo said 9 months ago
Yep,heard all about this.This leaves me out,do not have any interest in a group of whatever call "Church"Nice name for a dog[ROLLEYES][ROLLEYES][ROLLEYES][ROLLEYES][HEART]
elfie33 said 9 months ago
I don't understand this so called "Church" ...something is wrong with these folks...[SAD]
southwesterngrad said 9 months ago
Oklahoma passed the same law after these idiots showed up at several military funerals here. I watched a documentary about this so-called church. It is no church. It is one crazy woman, her father, and her kids.[THUMBDOWN][THUMBDOWN]
mmmhollywould said 9 months ago
[THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP][THUMBUP]
donnamg said 9 months ago
I am enraged when I read about this "church" and any others like it! I admit that any church or individual is entitled to an opinion, a belief, and has a right to express it. But, to blatantly hurt or insult others in the process? If the "church" was protesting the military's inclusion of gays, then why weren't they protesting at a military facility? Heck, you might think these idiots would be celebrating at the funeral! In their pea-sized brains they would see it as one less gay in the world and, therefore, another gay wiped out of the military! (Of course there would be no regard for the fact that this individual was defending our country or that church's rights! Nor, would there be any regard for the loss felt by the boy's father!) I am enraged by this "righteous" activity! Therefore, I am thrilled by the jury's decision!
lost88 said 9 months ago
god sucks and the IDEA (he is nothing more than that) of God needs to be left behind. it inevitably leads to one religious person saying "God says I can do that" or "God says YOU CAN'T do that", which is ridiculous. I think if there was a God, he would have made a better F'ing job of creation for a start, and also made it so that people could ENJOY their bloody lives without being hounded by some damned Jehovah's Witness (Nothing against them in particular, but they are the only religion I know of that does cold calling) or some Catholic/Evangelist/Methodist/Quaker etc etc who actually TAKES ACTION?! regarding something that makes no difference to them.
lost88 said 9 months ago
by the way, just read that quote by Mr.Kipling... He gives exceedingly good advice[LOL]
scottishlassie said 9 months ago
I am so glad to see this. So very, very, very glad! Carol[THUMBUP]