WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Supreme Court has set a court date to hear arguments that a controversial Baptist church's street protests at military funerals are protected by the Constitution.
Westboro protesters at a demonstration in Charleston, S.C., from a picture on the church's website.
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Attorneys for Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., will go to the high court Oct. 6 to argue the case weighing the limits of free speech and assembly against an individual's right to privacy.
In 2007, a federal jury in Baltimore awarded nearly $11 million to the father of a fallen Marine who alleged intrusion upon seclusion and infliction of emotional distress after members of the church protested near his son's funeral in 2006.
Last fall the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voided that judgment. The appellate court said signs carried by the protesters — with messages such as "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" — were "distasteful and repugnant" but are protected as free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Lawyers for Westboro Baptist — a small congregation not affiliated with any national denomination and composed mostly of members of Pastor Fred Phelps' family — will argue that their protest signs are "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric intended to spark debate" and not "objectively verifiable facts" subject to damages.
The church, which claims to have conducted more than 43,000 peaceful demonstrations against homosexuality since 1991, says America "crossed the line" in 2003 when the Supreme Court found sodomy laws unconstitutional and that God is using war to punish the nation for condoning sin.
Groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union on the left to the Rutherford Institute and Liberty Counsel on the right have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Westboro's free-speech argument.
Lawyers for Albert Snyder of York, Pa. — whose son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, died in a non-combat-related vehicle accident March 3, 2006, in Iraq — will contend the church's free-speech rights do not trump the family's right to mourn in private. They say the appellate court's broad ruling "completely vitiates" — undermines — state laws that allow private citizens to receive damages for emotional distress.
Attorneys general of 48 states and the District of Columbia signed on to a brief supporting Snyder. Since Westboro Baptist Church began targeting military funerals for protest in 2005, 40 states have enacted laws regulating protests around funerals. The brief argued that the states "have a compelling interest in protecting the sanctity and privacy of funerals, both to honor deceased citizens and to support and comfort grieving families."
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that while lawyers are inside the Supreme Court building arguing the case Oct. 6, other members of Westboro Baptist Church will be outside, picketing with signs carrying messages including "Fag Court."
The church, which has picketed the Supreme Court twice before, also plans to demonstrate at the White House, the Capitol and Arlington National Cemetery, Shirley Phelps-Roper, one of the congregation's lawyers, told the newspaper.
"Why would we drive to that city without going to those seats of government?" Phelps-Roper said.
The case is Snyder v. Phelps, No. 09-751.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Previous ABP stories:
Church claims funeral protests are protected (7/8/2010)
Court voids $5 million judgment against Westboro Baptist Church (9/25/2009)