TOPEKA, Kan. (ABP) — A fundamentalist Baptist church known for picketing funerals of fallen soldiers argued in a U.S. Supreme Court brief filed July 7 that its actions are protected by the Constitution.
Margie Phelps — attorney of record for members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., sued by the father of a Marine killed in Iraq for picketing during his son's funeral — said the high court should uphold a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the protests are not "objectively verifiable facts" but rather "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric intended to spark debate" that fall under free-speech protection of the First Amendment.
Phelps, a sole practitioner who took the case on referral from a law firm founded by her father, Westboro Baptist Church' pastor Fred Phelps, is one of 11 out of Phelps' 13 children with law degrees. She said church members target military funerals for their "street-preaching ministry" because they believe God has led America into war as punishment for sins including homosexuality.
"The purpose of picketing in connection with funerals is to use an available public platform, when the living contemplate death, to deliver the message that there is a consequence for sin," she said in the brief.
On March 10, 2006, seven members of the church showed up for the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, a 20-year-old Marine killed in Iraq, at a Catholic church in Westminster, Md. They held signs reading: "Don't Pray for the USA," "God Hates Fags," "God Hates You," "God Hates America," "God's View/Not Blessed Just Cursed," "Semper Fi Fags," "Pope in Hell," "God Hates the USA/Thank God for 911," "You're Going to Hell," "Fag Troops," "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "Thank God for IEDs" and "Priests Rape Boys"
Offended by their presence, Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the church and four of the protestors for intrusion upon seclusion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy. In 2007 a federal jury in Baltimore awarded Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages. The trial court later reduced the judgment against the church to $5.1 million and the appellate court voided it altogether in September 2009.
The Supreme Court accepted the case in March, setting up one of the most-watched cases in the court's 2010-2011 term, one that will test the limits of free speech.
In a brief filed earlier with the Supreme Court, Snyder's lawyers argued the church's right to free speech does not trump the family's right to mourn in private.
In the Westboro Baptist Church brief, however, Phelps argued that is a false choice. "It is not necessary to balance interests in this case, and such a claim poses false alternatives in this case," she said. "All parties' rights were fully protected."
She claimed the protestors, standing more than 1,000 feet away and out of sight and sound of the funeral route, did not impede on Snyder's right to "assemble and engage in religious rituals."
Snyder's privacy was not invaded, the brief claims, because the family opted for a public rather than a private funeral, announcing the time and location in an obituary. She countered Snyder's claim that as a private individual, he is entitled to less scrutiny than a public figure, saying the father's decision to give media interviews after his son's death about his views on the war made him a "limited purpose public figure."
Further, the church claims, Snyder enjoyed "all the benefits of a public figure" in using media to successfully persuade "the entire country that his son is a hero and WBC is a villain whose words should be utterly disregarded."
Though profiled in a BBC documentary as "The Most Hated Family in America," Phelps said members of her church — most of whom are members of her father's extended family — are actually motivated by "love for God, the Bible and their fellow citizens."
"Their words are seemingly harsh and graphic, because of the crisis they perceive to exist, and because of the reality of the woes coming upon the nation," she wrote. "They are sincere in these beliefs, and study the Scriptures and expositors daily."
"WBC is motivated to warn people not to go to hell, and of the consequences of national policies of sin," Phelps contended. "And WBC did this warning through public speech in public arenas about public matters."
Citing a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1919 that even the most stringent free-speech protection "would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic," Phelps observed, "If the theater was on fire, it would be cruel and possibly unlawful not to shout 'fire.'"
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.