Federal judge orders Westboro Baptist Church to pay the funeral expenses of a Marine!

[pr_capone]

Link courtesy of Fark.com

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/4...urce=enews&c=y

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A federal judge in Baltimore is ordering Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church to pay more than $3,000 in costs related to the funeral of a Marine the group picketed.

Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania, is suing because church
members demonstrated at the funeral of his son, Lance Corporal
Matthew Snyder. Church members also posted pictures of the protest
on their Web site.

Corporal Snyder was killed in Iraq in March.

The lawsuit was filed in June. It says church members violated
the family's right to privacy and defamed the Marine and his family
at the funeral and on the church's Web site.

Court documents say the church has 30 days to make the payment
to Snyder.

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!

[Crashride]

So why hasnt anyone just picked them off yet?

[ChiefsfaninPA]

The father of this Marine is from the same city I am from, and when this was all happening he was in the local paper pretty pissed about this whole group doing this. I am glad to see something come out of it.

[RP_McMurphy]

I support a late term Abortion on the entire Westboro church.

[chagrin]

I also hope this sets a legal precedent, that group of people have perverted freedom of speech and assembly; What they do is beyond tasteless and certainly word for word against what Christianity stands for.

[Nelson Muntz]

I hope this sticks up through all the appeals and sets a good precedent for hopefully many future lawsuits against WBC.

[crazycoffey]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Although I'm all for those bastards having to pay, I'm not sure I understand the basis for the ruling. Why should they have to pay for funeral expenses? Anybody know the laws better than I do who could explain?

In civil suits the judge can order just about anything, hence the Seinfeld show where they talked about someone being ordered to be a butler, although they do have some limitations, and usually follow a preset precedence from other rulings, they can rule in favor of the plaintiff in case (the family) because of the extra hardship to lose a young family member, dealing with stupid people trying to make a political statement and those same stupid people posting a picture of the family at the funeral on their website.


It was probably a Military Funeral, therefore paid for with taxpayer dollars, since the group continues to protest military funerals, the Government can show a vested interest in these protests and the judge can punish them by making them pay for the funeral to the Government, saving a few precious tax dollars, and hopefully it will be seen as punishment to the group and discourage them from continuing these actions.....

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by crazycoffey

In civil suits the judge can order just about anything, hence the Seinfeld show where they talked about someone being ordered to be a butler, although they do have some limitations, and usually follow a preset precedence from other rulings, they can rule in favor of the plaintiff in case (the family) because of the extra hardship to lose a young family member, dealing with stupid people trying to make a political statement and those same stupid people posting a picture of the family at the funeral on their website.


It was probably a Military Funeral, therefore paid for with taxpayer dollars, since the group continues to protest military funerals, the Government can show a vested interest in these protests and the judge can punish them by making them pay for the funeral to the Government, saving a few precious tax dollars, and hopefully it will be seen as punishment to the group and discourage them from continuing these actions.....

That makes sense I guess. I'm just surprised no one's done it until now (sued them).

[crazycoffey]

Originally Posted by DaFace

That makes sense I guess. I'm just surprised no one's done it until now (sued them).

I'm sure many thought about it, but it does take one good suit to start setting a precendence. Others may have sued and not got as far, the biggest key difference in this story (IMO) is the pictures the protesters posted on their website. If I'm a family member at the funeral and see my face on this POS website, I'm getting something done.

I don't know all the facts in all these incidents either, though, and they very well could have sued them several months to even a year ago.

chiefsfaninPA may have some more insight on how long ago this suit happened and how long it took to get to this point.

[Deberg_1990]

Im curious how big their congregation is?? Is it just their family? What sort of messed up mind would choose to worship at this "alledged" church??

Its sad because they dont even have the deceny to honor the individuals who give them the right to hold these silly protests in the first place.

[RealSNR]

I wonder how tragic it would be if some antifreeze accidentally got mixed into the communion wine...