The price of deranged homophobia just got a whole lot more expensive. May the bigots of the Westboro Baptist Church enjoy bankruptcy. They can blame that on the gays too.
The Hays Daily News reports:
BALTIMORE (AP) — The father of a fallen Marine was awarded nearly $11 million Wednesday in damages by a jury that found leaders of a fundamentalist church had invaded the family’s privacy and inflicted emotional distress when they picketed the Marine’s funeral.
The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned later in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress to the Marine’s father, Albert Snyder of York, Pa.
Snyder sued the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified monetary damages after members staged a demonstration at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.
Church members picket military funerals out of a belief that U.S. deaths in the war in Iraq are punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
14 Comments
+ at 8:06 am
Just like the Aryan Nation and the Klan, the way to shut their fucking mouths up is to bankrupt their asses and then like garbage, they get thrown away, and silenced. The jury who awarded the father of the fallen Marine should be celebrated.
+ at 8:09 am
Woohoo! Slapping my knee! Finally some good news in this country.
+ at 8:15 am
This is awesome! I hate it for the father cause I doubt those dumbass hillbillies have 2 nickels to rub together! It would be great for each family to also sue and keep these assholes tied up in court and legal fees forever! If Gods on there side maybe he’ll rained down cash on them! LOL! This made my day!
+ at 9:19 am
Urah! Justice is served.
Marines guard Heavens Gates .
Semper Fi!
+ at 10:52 am
Well finally justice pays a visit to phelps. (happy dance here) If nothing else i hope these inbreds some of whom , his dtr. i believe are lawyers, hey anyone can get a degree from Falwell U. But maybe now they will think twice before loading their clan and their heinous signs into their vans before coming to insult and incite gay people. These people are the nuttiest of the lunatic fringe. What they have done over the yrs and yrs goes far beyond free speech. HA ! and they went too far finally – by protesting at a military funeral. Hey whatever it takes.. They can appeal till the cows come home..finally a ruling against them – now that is good news !
+ at 10:55 am
As a former Marine myself (1977-1981 & 1982-1984), those f*cking wackos should be more than bankrupted, but it’ll do.
Until the next time.
Semper Fi Former Marine my brother.
Fight the good fight. Always.
+ at 11:07 am
Hear, Hear. My father was a Marine.
The Marine gave his life for what he thought to be correct and just and Fred Phelps tried to toss his dead body in the county waste processing plant.
May Phelps rot in hell.
+ at 12:37 pm
How utterly immoral to treat the families of dead soldiers in such a despicable manner. While I do not support Bush’ Iraq war and I’m no fan of the military per se, I recognize the ultimate sacrifice this Marine made and his grieving family doesn’t deserve to be kicked in the head by a wingnut like Fred Phelps.
+ at 1:16 pm
I love this ruling.
I love this ruling.
I love this ruling.
We all pay the price of their hatred.
Time to make THEM pay.
+ at 4:50 pm
[...] Source: From the Left (thank you!) [...]
+ at 6:51 pm
Fred Phelps should be fed to a Komodo dragon while his “flock” watches every chomp. He’s the lowest SOB in the country. Pure evil.
+ at 7:13 pm
I was in a conversation about this with someone and then a blog comment conversation about the same topic… free speech.
This was never about free speech- this is hateful screed. It is horrifying and so sick.
I love how Bush F*ckwit and others love to drag out all the Nazi analogies but this is the real analogy. These people spew hate for no reason.
It is so wrong.
+ at 8:01 pm
It’s not enough! My heart goes out to this father and all the other families. I attended the funeral of my brother and the funeral of my father both on the same day at Arlington. My family was greeted outside the gates by the screams of these brainless, hate filled creatures. I can’t tell you how much this hurt my family and then and now…… I hope any of the other families that can afford to sue will …
+ at 12:42 pm
They will never pay – they’ll just appeal it to death. However, it’s excellent that someone has finally stepped to the plate and smacked that hate-filled ‘church’ down. More smackin’ and maybe they be crackin?