By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press Writer
37 minutes ago



A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

Snyder's attorney, Craig Trebilcock, had urged jurors to determine an amount "that says don't do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again."

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries. But the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

The church and three of its leaders — the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46 — were found liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress.

Even the size of the award for compensating damages "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants," according to financial statements filed with the court, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted.

Snyder claimed the protests intruded upon what should have been a private ceremony and sullied his memory of the event.

The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that soldiers are dying because the nation is too tolerant of homosexuality.

Their attorneys maintained in closing arguments Tuesday that the burial was a public event and that even abhorrent points of view are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and religion.

Earlier, church members staged a demonstration outside the federal courthouse. Church founder Fred Phelps held a sign reading "God is your enemy," while Shirley Phelps-Roper stood on an American flag and carried a sign that read "God hates fag enablers." Members of the group sang "God Hates America" to the tune of "God Bless America."

Snyder sobbed when he heard the verdict, while members of the church greeted the news with tightlipped smiles.

good hope they learned their lesson

they are lucky that some one has not figured out

how to charge them with a hate crime

they are white supremists pure and simple..i'm glad he won.
A gay bishop was appointed in the episcipailan church here and those nasty as people came here with their ugliness.

why are people so angry and filled with hatred because of a persons sexual orientation
it just doesn't make sense to me

Laet year, in April, I went to the wake and burial of LCPL Philip John Martini USMC (07-10-81 / 04-08-06) RIP, young MAN. He was from the town of South Holland, IL. I did not know him, nor anyone else there, but as a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, it was my Honor to be there. There were roughly 200 bikers, and cagers there too, to send this MAN home. It was my honor to shake the hand of his Father, and I was not alone in crying as his Dad walked up to each and every one of us and shook our hands, and said Thank-You for being here.

We were there because the rev(?) phillips(mis-spelled on purpose) and his inbred family were there. They tried to make noise, but the GREAT Boys in Blue of the South Holland P.D. kept moving them back When we could hear them due to the change in wind direction, we started singing anything patriotic.

I pray to My God that this causes them to have to close that church.

I think thats great elwoodsully!!

I just don't understand people at all. Live and let live, then when they pass away, give the family the respect to let them bury their loved onces in peace!! What is this world coming to??

well doesn't this just bring up a bunch of questions.

Like - when are the rights of freedom of religious exercise and free speech no longer valid???????

For example: Is it ok, for a Christian doctor to advertise that s/he does abortions, only to get unwitting patients to his office for Christian counceling or fetus shock theropy? Full knowing that s/he would never do an abortion?

And what about Christians who refuse to give gays, lesbians and transgender all the same employment benefits as provided to the rest of society under the Civil Rights Act.

And those Christians who would use their "freedoms" clause to deny equal treatment under that same law to others.

So exactly were is the line that says "in this case,your freedom is restricted"? Where is that line?

Redy....when were they ever valid??


free speech??? freedom of religion???? privacy??????


not in the USA

“a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.”

Yet another example of how a belief in mythology turns people into morons.

Or is it just that morons are the only people who believe in mythology?

The war in Iraq was the decision of ONE MAN, “George W. Bush”, he made that decision and he could have decided otherwise.

To claim that God put us in the war in Iraq to punish us for not being bigoted is absurd. It also implies that George W. Bush is God!

Those jerks came to Lexington to "protest" two funerals of soldiers, and oddly enough a gang of bikers who are veterans made a human wall to keep the church people away from the funerals.

The church people only want to aggervate and harass family's of dead men and women who put there life on the line and lost. Those members are already going thru enough, they don't need to hear people call their sons and daughters every name in the book just because they disagree with the way the world is.

This group is rediculous. They have been here before. They were run out and barred.
I have a video, I think I still have it about them and their stupidity. They are out of their minds.
They will never pay. They do not have the money. They are small and mostly family.
Kat

About the bikers; they travel around and protect the morners from these idiots.
This so called church; They say things like they deserved to die. They are cowards. On and on...
Kat