I Got This From The Vfw

[Micmac]

Peter,

 

As a patriotic American, you should know immediately about a very troubling situation.

 

The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Court has ordered Albert Snyder, the father of a slain Marine, to pay legal costs to the Westboro Baptist Church.

 

Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., led by Fred Phelps, has for years been taunting grieving mourners at military funerals nationwide. During the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder in 2006, the anti-gay group praised the loss of the young Marine as well as other young servicemen and women, calling their deaths a by-product of a nation that tolerates homosexuality.

 

VFW National Commander Thomas J. Tradewell, Sr., is urging members and patriotic friends to assist the fallen Marine’s father and also send words of support and encouragement.

 

A fund has been set up to help Mr. Snyder pay the court costs. None of the money will be for attorneys, who are graciously representing him pro bono. Donate online at www.matthewsnyder.org or send a check payable to "Al Snyder Fund" to: Barley Snyder LLC, 100 East Market Street, York, PA 17401.

 

 

 

“This is a travesty at best and borders on the obscene. Mr. Snyder has already confronted the difficulties of burying his Marine son and then bringing a lawsuit against this group of hate-mongers. It is absolutely wrong for the court to order him to shoulder a financial burden on top of everything else.”

 

Thomas J. Tradewell, Sr.

VFW National Commander

 

 

 

 

Veterans of Foreign Wars | 406 West 34th Street | Kansas City, MO 64111

 

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[RCH]

This is so sad on so many different levels.

[maninbox]

This is an ongoing issue that I have been following. I hope the Supreme Court makes the right decision. I don't feel confident.

 

Supreme Court Roundup

 

 

Justices to Hear Case of Protest at Marine Funeral

 

By ADAM LIPTAK

 

Published: March 8, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether the father of a Marine killed in Iraq may sue protesters who picketed his son’s funeral with signs that read “God Hates You” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

 

This Image

 

 

Dylan Slagle/Carroll County Times, via Associated Press

A motorcyclist supporting the family of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder drove by protesters at his funeral in Westminster, Md., in 2006.

 

 

Related

• 
  Sidebar: In a Polarized Court, Getting the Last Word (March 9, 2010)

A federal appeals court dismissed the suit on First Amendment grounds and threw out a $5 million award against the protesters, who are members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., and maintain that God hates homosexuality and that the death of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is God’s way of punishing the United States for its tolerance of it.

 

The fallen Marine was Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, and his funeral was held in Westminster, Md., in 2006. His father, Albert Snyder, testified at trial in 2007 that the protests continued to haunt and disturb him.

 

“For the rest of my life,” Mr. Snyder said, “I will remember what they did to me, and it has tarnished the memory of my son’s last hour on earth.”

 

He added that he became angry and tearful when he thought about the protest and that the memory of it had caused him to vomit.

 

The protesters complied with local laws and instructions from the police about keeping their distance. They did not know the Snyders, and they had staged similar protests at other military funerals.

 

Mr. Snyder’s central claim is that the protesters intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him.

 

In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment barred the Rev. Jerry Falwell from suing Hustler Magazine for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Hustler had published a parody of an advertisement suggesting that Mr. Falwell had incestuous sex in an outhouse. (Coincidentally, Mr. Falwell expressed views not wholly different from those of the funeral protesters, saying that the nation’s attitudes toward homosexuality and abortion had played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks.)

 

Mr. Snyder contends that the Hustler decision should not apply to suits brought by one private person against another. In libel and other cases, the Supreme Court has limited the First Amendment protection afforded to purely private speech.

 

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., unanimously ruled against Mr. Snyder, though the judges split 2-to-1 over the rationale. The majority said the messages on the protesters’ signs were protected under the First Amendment because they addressed matters of general interest.

 

“As utterly distasteful as these signs are,” Judge Robert B. King wrote for the majority, “they involve matters of public concern, including the issues of homosexuals in the military, the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, and the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens.”

 

-------------Westboro Baptist Church Assholes

 

 

[335]

O,Riley already said that he would pay the cost!

[Micmac]

Obviously he was bloviating (O'Riely),and just because he say's it, does not mean it is true. As I have been a member of the VFW for over 30 years I have found them to be truthful and all about veterans and their families. I do not think the Nat'l Cmder would have mounted such a plea for help was the need not there. In other words they do not solicit for the hell of it, this is a real need. So either contribute, or don't-I was just putting it out there for those interested in helping a guy out who has contributed his son's life for our nation. I personally would like to see the Westboro Baptist Church go the way of The People's Temple and Reverend Jim Jones.That way they can face the ultimate judge and see if he sides with the 4th Judicial.

[Doc Loco]

Most everyone wants to go to Heaven ... eventually - but later not now. In the mean time demonizing US Servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to insure that everyone enjoys Liberty including the Westboro Baptist homophobiacs is the excuse for this behavior?

And these extreme zealots hope to convince the public through displays of this type of deep disrespect? EscapistMorons who can't see reality looking them in the face.

Amazing how they abuse the right to free speech. Westboro ostriches have their heads firmly planted deep inside their nether regions - must be impossible to get a breath of fresh air or a good look at anything at all. Blinded by narrow dogma and hypnotized by the idiotic rhetoric of demigouge Unreverand Phelps. The fingers they point should fall off and the words they speak should boil the tongues from their ass impaled skulls. Can you tell I condemn them as corrupted hypocrites?

 

I don't understand how they ever got to this position logically or religiously. Makes no sense to me at all.

[colo.gw]

Micmac, thanks for put n this up. 4 different occasions i have watched in person these twisted minds at work. my guess is this band of crazy eye d fucs make a living permitting this squat hoping for confrontation to make n the municipality liable for suite. guess what surprises me most is that no one has cracked there sculls. or made a special delivery to the compound in Kansas. gw