BALTIMORE (ABP) — The father of a Marine killed in Iraq says he will appeal a voided $5 million judgment against protesters at his son's funeral all the way to the Supreme Court.
"I'm just kind of laying low right now, weighing the options, talking to lawyers," Al Snyder said Oct. 7 on WBAL radio in Baltimore. "We are definitely going to appeal this to the Supreme Court. We just don't agree with the decision at all."
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 24 overturned a lower-court judgment against members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., a notorious congregation known for picketing military funerals with signs like "Thank God for dead soldiers." The appeals court ruled that while "distasteful and repugnant," the messages — part of a long-running campaign of anti-gay rhetoric — are free speech protected by the Constitution.
Snyder of York, Pa., sued church members for intrusion upon seclusion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy after they showed up outside the funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, in March 2006.
Snyder said he was shielded from the protesters the day of the funeral and didn't see the signs or hear the them until seeing Pastor Fred Phelps and daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper interviewed on the evening news.
"It was just an experience no one should go through," Snyder said.
Snyder said all he wanted to do that day was bury his son, but publicity about the protesters turned the funeral at a Catholic church in Westminster, Md., into a media circus, with more than 100 reporters and a SWAT team positioned inside the church.
"I'm all for freedom of speech. Don't get me wrong," Snyder said. "But a funeral is not the place for it. Go to a park. Go to the White House. Go anywhere."
The protesters' message is that military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's judgment on the United States for allowing gays in the military. But Snyder said his son, like the other servicemen the Westboro group has targeted, had nothing to do with determining military policy.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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