Snyder funeral protest case will go to Supreme Court
Family of Westminster Marine had sued picketers
By David G. Savage and Joe Burris
Tribune Newspapers
Posted 3/14/10
A protest that began near St. John's Catholic Church in Westminster in 2006 will wind up next fall on the doorstep of the U.S. Supreme Court.
On March 8, the Supreme Court agreed that it will take on the case pressed by the father of the late U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder of Westminster.
Justices will hear arguments in the case this fall.
Albert Snyder had sued the leader of a small band of protesters who picketed near his son's funeral with signs that said, among other things, "Thank God for dead soldiers."
The Supreme Court's acceptance of the case is the latest twist in a legal battle that arose out of the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a Westminster High School graduate who died in Iraq in March 2006.
Matthew Snyder was 20 years old and had been in the war zone for less than a month when he was killed in a vehicle accident in Anbar province.
Albert Snyder sued Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., who has traveled the country with a group of followers, leading protests at funerals for U.S. soldiers and others.
A federal jury in Baltimore awarded $11 million to Albert Snyder in 2007.
That award was later reduced to $5 million, but then, in September 2009, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the award on free-speech grounds.
The jury awarded damages to the Snyder family, saying the funeral protests invaded its privacy and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
"Notwithstanding the distasteful and repugnant nature of the words being challenged in these proceedings, we are constrained to conclude that the defendants' signs are constitutionally protected," the court said.
The family appealed to the Supreme Court, saying the protests tarnished Snyder's funeral.
"Matthew deserved better. A civilized society deserved better," family members said at the time.
The court announced this week it had voted to hear the appeal — and rule on whether the right to free speech includes the right to intrude upon a solemn ceremony.
Sean E. Summers, an attorney for the Snyders, said while Phelps has argued he was exercising its constitutionally protected freedom of speech, the Snyder family says the protests violated its First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and practice its faith.
"We're saying that they didn't have a freedom-of-speech right to disrupt a funeral," Summers said.
He added, "Mr. Snyder was at his own church, and the Phelps family came there to disrupt" the funeral.
Albert Snyder, who now lives in York, Pa., said the ordeal has changed his easy-going manner.
"I'm a different person after this experience," he said. "I'll speak up and not let people walk over me."
The Snyder funeral is not the only time Westboro has interacted with Carroll County. In 2008, Phelps and the church said they would create a similar protest at the funeral of two teens who died in a car accident in Finksburg.
At the time, Westboro Baptist Church claimed that tragedy had struck Maryland, "because Maryland is persecuting WBC."
No protesters showed at that funeral.
Something I'm sure we can agree on..
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