Snyder Vs. Phelps: Court Wieghs Limits On Speech

From ALM and The Wall Street Journal:

Court Weighs Limits on Speech .Text By JESS BRAVIN



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Margie Phelps, center, daughter of the Westboro Baptist Church's leader.

.WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court struggled Wednesday to protect a bereaved parent from a character attack without stifling free-speech rights.



The case came tailor-made to test how far the First Amendment protects offensive speech. At issue is whether the father of a fallen Marine can sue a fringe religious group that celebrated his son's death with vulgar funeral pickets and a crude online attack.



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Jocob Phelps holds up a placard as he protests for his side of the Snyder V. Phelps case outside the Supreme Court in Washington Oct. 6.

.Albert Snyder sued the tiny Westboro Baptist Church for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, winning a $5 million award. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., threw out the award, ruling that the First Amendment protected Westboro's speech. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Mr. Snyder's appeal.



Some justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, seemed to see little risk to free speech by letting Mr. Snyder win damages from the Topeka, Kan., church.



The Supreme Court is considering a free-speech case between the father of a fallen Marine and Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church, which picketed his son's funeral. WSJ's Jess Bravin explains why Snyder v. Phelps is shaping up as one of the biggest in the high court's 2010-11 term.

.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed concern about setting a precedent that could punish people for expressing unpopular opinions, but suggested the church's behavior was unjustifiable. "Why should the First Amendment tolerate exploiting this Marine's family when you have so many other forums for getting across your message?" she asked.



Still, the outcome was hard to predict, in part because the case mingled the one-time funeral picket and the church's online post, different forms of expression that some justices suggested had distinct legal implications. The online screed included insults such as the claim that the parents of the late Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder raised him to serve the devil.



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Law Blog: Court Confronts Tough Issues in Case

."Are we just talking about a funeral? That's one of the problems I have with the case," said Justice Antonin Scalia. The two separate incidents "were just submitted to the jury as one big lump," he said.



Justice Stephen Breyer said, "Do you think that a person can put anything on the Internet? Do you think they can put anything on television even if it attacks, say, the most private things of a private individual? What should the rules be there?"



Westboro followers complied with local laws and followed police instructions when they picketed the March 2006 funeral in Westminster, Md. Mr. Snyder knew Westboro planned to picket, but didn't see the signs, which bore such messages as "God Hates You," until he watched television news reports.



Margie Phelps, daughter of church leader Fred Phelps, is a lawyer and represented Westboro before the court. She said Mr. Snyder invited a public dialogue with Westboro by commenting to a newspaper reporter writing an obituary of his son, Cpl. Snyder, who was 20 years old when he died in a Humvee accident in Iraq's Anbar Province.





Jess Bravin/The Wall Street Journal



Timothy Phelps, 47, son of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, brings the sect's message to the Supreme Court. The justices heard argument over whether the First Amendment protects the church's pickets at Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder's funeral and a vulgar online attack on the Marine's parents for raising him in their Catholic faith.

."When is this senseless war going to end?" Mr. Snyder, a York, Pa., salesman, told the Baltimore Sun. "I just want it to be over. And I want answers."



If Mr. Snyder publicly asks such questions, Ms. Phelps said, "a little church where the servants of God are found" has the right to say, "We have an answer to your question that you put in the public airwaves, and our answer is you have got to stop sinning if you want this trauma to stop happening."



Sean Summers, a York attorney representing Mr. Snyder, said the court should draw a line between public figures, who are fair game, and private individuals, who should be able to sue when they are selected for insult to draw attention to an unrelated group's cause.



Justice Anthony Kennedy said he was troubled that any private individual could be singled out for vicious personal attack if he or she could be linked to some public issue.



"All of us in a pluralistic society have components to our identity; we are Republicans or Democrats, we are Christians or atheists, we are single or married, we are old or young. Any one of those things you could turn into a public issue and follow a particular person around, making that person the target of your comments," he said.



Veterans groups and politicians have rallied to Mr. Snyder's side. Religious groups and free-speech advocates, while distancing themselves from Westboro's message and methods, have argued that the First Amendment didn't permit Mr. Snyder's lawsuit. One such brief was filed by a group of news organizations, including Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.



The Westboro church, whose membership largely consists of the founder's family, believes any misfortune America suffers is divine punishment for the nation's failure to follow the sect's doctrine, which condemns gays, Catholics, Jews and others.



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..Church members picketed at the Supreme Court Wednesday. Timothy Phelps, 47, a son of the founder, carried a sign reading, "Thank God for Breast Cancer."



In an interview after the arguments, Mr. Snyder, 55, said he had no objection to Westboro's pickets at the court.



"Take it to the White House, take it to the Congress, take it to the Supreme Court, that's what they're supposed to do," he said. "But 99% of Americans would agree that you can't protest a funeral. Everybody deserves to be buried with dignity and respect."



A decision is expected by June.



Write to Jess Bravin at jess.bravin@wsj.com



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