Westboro case makes it to the Supreme Court
Al Snyder, the father of Matthew Snyder, a fallen soldier, will square off in the Supreme Court next Wednesday with Fred Phelps’ demented flock to have his $5 million settlement against the Westboro “Baptist” Church reinstated. (Stars & Stripes/AP link)
Margie Phelps, a daughter of the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church and the lawyer representing her family members at the Supreme Court, said that if the justices reinstate the $5 million judgment to Snyder, anyone who says anything upsetting to a mourner “is subject to a crushing penalty.”
But Snyder said in an interview with The Associated Press that if he had the chance, he would tell the justices “that this isn’t a case of free speech. It’s case of harassment.”
This Ain’t Hell’s legal correspondent has secured a seat at the oral arguments on Thursday.
Category: Legal, Military issues
No, Margie–it’s a case of you being an attention whore and rubbing salt into the wounds of people who are already in enough distress.
Bottom line, being a douchebag should be painful, and in your case, expensive.
Inbreeders
TAH has a legal correspondent?
TAH has all kinds of shit. We even have a corporate retreat. We’re not some fly-by-night blog like “some” blogs. Next year, we may even have a Capitol Hill correspondent…depending on how the elections turn out.
This would be a Case I’d love to sit in on. I hope Westboro gets bitch slapped into the next century….
Make it hurt Scalia, PLEASE!!!
@OT: Scalia is good people, mostly. I have it on good authority that he likes to shoot Beneli shotguns locally…….
I am quite looking forward to the AAR from this.
I think folks might be surprised at the resources Jonn can call upon, and, indeed, the MilBlogs in general. 🙂
I absolutely despise this inbred clan of mouth breathing, white trash, pecker-woods.
Hopefully, SCOTUS will break their bank and reduce them to a level of poverty from which they cannot recover.
And also affirm that making an ass out of yourself at a Warrior’s funeral…distracting their families and friends from honoring and mourning the fallen, like shouting “Fire” in a crowded theater, does NOT constitute protected speech under the 1st Amendment.
While I understand that living in this country and having something as awesome as the 1st Amendment means I might have to hear things I don’t like, I wish these people would get shot.
I agree with everything above, but I’m going to make a prediction here. Let’s see how my crystal ball is working.
The decision will fall in Westboro’s favor; however, the Justices will make a point of lambasting their behavior.
@ Pinto,
I dunno, you can’t protest within a specified distance of an abortion clinic. No reason you can’t impose the same limit on these assclowns. How about “no protesting within 1000 miles of reality?”
I sure would like to see that done, Old Tanker. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of folks.
How does Westboro’s actions legaly differ from those of a stalkers? I find it hard to believe they could possibly win this.
@ Jacobite
I think the difference is that this is done in a public arena vs. a stalker targeting an individual usually on personal property (including phone, email, snail mail, etc…) If they continued on harassing a Gold Star family you can bet it would fall under stalker type laws.
One question I would like asked, if it hasn’t been already, is how the church would feel if a group came to one of their family member’s funerals and protested. If I lived close enough to them that I could attend one of their funerals, I would like to lead a protest just to let them know what it is like for the others. I would then “politely” ask them not to do it to others. Polite or not, I would like to see protests at their funerals.
“I may disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” with apologies to Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
I have always believed this and still do but when these turd buckets abuse this right given to them by the person being buried, all bets are off. I’m with Smorgasbord and would love to protest them but I’m afraid Pinto is right. It’ll wind up being like flag burners who have the ‘right’ to burn the Stars & Stripes.