Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs -> Religion Clause

Religion & Law

: Religion Clause

4th Circuit Says Westboro's "Utterly Distasteful" Picketing Is Protected By 1st Amendment

By Howard M. Friedman

In Snyder v. Phelps, (4th Cir., Sept. 24, 2009), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders that a $5 million judgment against them growing out of their picketing of the funeral of Iraq veteran Matthew Snyder violated their free speech rights. Westboro Baptist Church members have gained notoriety for their picketing of veterans' funerals carrying signs attacking America's acceptance of gays. Here Snyder's father claimed that the picketing and a related Internet posting amounted to an invasion of privacy by intrusion upon seclusion, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. The majority held that defendants' picket signs, while "utterly distasteful" nevertheless involve matters of public concern including the issue 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.

The court held that additionally no reasonable reader could interpret any of the signs, or the Internet posting, as asserting actual and objectively verifiable facts about Snyder or his son. They are merely "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric intended to spark debate about issues with which the Defendants are concerned." Judge Shedd, concurring in the judgment, would have avoided the constitutional issue by holding that Snyder failed to introduce sufficient evidence at trial to support the jury verdict in his favor.

Today's Baltimore Sun reports on the decision and reactions to it. Meanwhile this week Westboro members began a campaign to picket synagogues in Brooklyn, New York just before Yom Kippur. Westboro spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper told the The Brooklyn Paper that their efforts could be seen as an "obey your God rally." Also, last week, just before Rosh Hashanah, Westboro picketers turned up outside the University of Oklahoma's Hillel Foundation. According to the AP, Phelps-Roper said the church stopped there as part of a "love campaign" to critize Jews for "killing Christ."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on September 25, 2009 (boomark / email).