Westboro Baptist Church Case Gets Supreme Court Hearing

An emotionally charged case — involving protests at the funeral of a Marine from Westminster — is getting a hearing before the Supreme Court today.

A federal jury in Baltimore awarded the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder $11 million in damages after members of Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church protested at the 2006 funeral.

Snyder, 20, was killed in a Humvee accident in Iraq on March 3, 2006. A week later, a small group of church members stood outside his funeral at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church in Westminster waving signs that said “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God hates fags” while mourners grieved inside. Later, they posted a diatribe on their Web site claiming that Matthew’s divorced parents raised him “to commit adultery” and to support “satanic Catholicism.”

The Topeka-based church’s members had never met Matthew — who wasn’t gay — nor his family. But they contended that the protest was directed not at Snyder but at the U.S. government and its tolerance of homosexuality and gays in the military.

Albert Snyder, the Marine’s father, sued Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders in Baltimore federal court a few months after Matthew died, contending that they invaded his privacy and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

[Story here]