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USATODAY.com
Church's shock
tactics another test
to free speech
Members rally at
funerals of U.S. war dead
By Alan Gomez,
abridged from Web and printed issue, November 26, 2007
A church's practice of taunting dead
soldiers at military funerals has set up a classic clash between offensive
speech and the First Amendment.
A jury awarded Albert Snyder nearly $11 million last month after members of the
Westboro Baptist Church picketed his son's military funeral with signs reading
"God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers."
The jury said the church violated the family's right to privacy, and Snyder
hoped the verdict would curtail the church's screeds.
Constitutional law experts say the verdict probably violated the church's First
Amendment right of free speech and possibly their right to freely exercise their
religion.
"It's a very unattractive defendant, but the law is on their side," said Mark
Graber, a constitutional law professor at the University of Maryland School of
Law.
The Topeka church has made headlines for the actions of its founder, Fred
Phelps. Phelps says God is punishing America for immoral ways, including
its tolerance of homosexuality. He says that is why U.S. servicemembers
are killed in Iraq and why students were killed in a shooting rampage at
Virginia Tech in April.
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