Phelps v. Snyder free essay sample

â€Å"God hates you. † â€Å"You’re going to hell. † Could you imagine having to bury your child that returned to American soil, dead, after fighting a war, listening and seeing these kinds of statements? When burying a loved one, a person should not have to deal with people picketing at a private funeral. That person is in enough pain and emotional loss for having to bury a family member. This is not more of an inappropriate or inconsiderable time than ever to be causing a negative scene and displaying a strong sense of hatred on someone who just recently lost their life fighting for this country. Albert Snyder, father of the late Matthew Snyder, has every right in his power to be suing Fred Phelps, pastor and founder of Westboro Baptist Church and the congregation, in seeking redemption for Matthew on numerous grounds. I, personally, have the right to be buried and laid in peace as does everyone else. A family should have the right to bury their loved one with no interference from others. Burying a person is part of life and to invade one’s personal right is unlawful. Westboro Baptist Church did not have the right to be present at Matthew Snyder’s funeral and in doing so I believe the decision made by the United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit should be reversed by the United States Supreme Court. A fallen hero returned to his homeland from Iraq, while on active military duty, where he was killed on the warfront. His name is Lance Corporal, Matthew Snyder, who was pronounced dead on March 3, 2006. His family held a funeral seven days later on March 10, 2006 in Westminster, Maryland. On the day of the funeral, members of Westboro Baptist Church protested at the funeral and posted an essay on its website called â€Å"The Burden of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder† all because of the question of his sexuality. Whether or not he was homosexual, people can think what they want to, but Westboro Baptist Church made it apparent of their anti-American, anti-Catholic, and anti-gay views by their haunting slogans. On June 5, 2006, Snyder filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court suing Phelps. A jury determined and awarded compensatory and punitive sums of money in favor of Snyder on October 31, 2007. However; on September 24, 2008, the Fourth Circuit reversed the decision made in district court siding with Phelps and dismissed the claims filed by Snyder. Westboro Baptist Church makes it very clear that it and its members are against America. By visiting one of their websites, godhatesfags. com, made available to everyone that has access to the Internet, one will find suggestive information on â€Å"God Hates the World†, â€Å"America is Doomed†, â€Å"Priests Rape Boys†, â€Å"Antichrist Obama†, and â€Å"Jews Killed Jesus† targeting different groups in the melting pot better known as the United States of America. Westboro Baptist Church blames homosexuals and their presence in the military, and America’s tolerance of homosexuality for the killing of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as a punishment from God. However; past wars that included United States involvement including World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, and Korean War, many soldiers lost their lives in combat as well and homosexuality was not the cause of it. God would not kill innocent because of someone’s choices. A wild tangent can best describe the purpose and aim of the views of Westboro Baptist Church. If something is said, it needs to be backed up with facts. On their website, Westboro Baptist Church answered, â€Å"Is it mean, hateful, uncompassionate, etc.? Im sure it is, according to your standards,† as to why they picket at funerals. It may be one’s religious belief to not certainly agree with homosexuality, but one should not fault someone for their choice of lifestyle because that is their individual right and one would be limiting their right if it was taken away. Anyone and everyone seems to be being blamed except those who are associated with Westboro Baptist Church, a strict fundamentalist group that has crossed the line and continues to do so with their cruel, mean, and sick way of doing and thinking. You and I, innocent bystanders, are being blamed because we tolerate it by living in America just like every other individual. Snyder’s parents are being accused and blamed because in an essay published by Westboro Baptist Church, it stated that the parents raised Matthew for the devil and to defy his creator. Yet, his parents have no say over how he chooses to live his life. It is completely mind numbing how this group uses religion to justify their hatred. I do not agree with the decision by the Fourth Circuit because the court did absolutely nothing to serve justice to the Snyder family. Unlike the jury’s determination in the District Court, the court had no feelings for Albert Snyder and family and essentially let the family down. Regardless of how one may feel about him, Matthew Snyder was a United States Marine and fought for our own freedom and for its citizens to be able to still have their civil liberties and rights. Snyder sought retribution for his son and the legal court system favored its judiciary system and legal society over an own individual’s rights, instead of doing what was right. â€Å"The Fourth Circuit’s decision gives no credence to Snyder’s personal stake in honoring and mourning his son and ignores Snyder’s right to bury his son with dignity and respect,† quoted directly from the summary that was provided of Snyder v. Phelps. It seemed as if the judges of the Fourth Circuit at the time were looking for an excuse to throw it out. Take for example, intentional infliction of emotional distress, one of the claims brought upon in this case. If this isn’t intentional infliction of emotional distress, then what is? It cannot exist if this is not it. This phenomenon is not new; it has been around for hundreds of years. It’s not like Westboro Baptist Church appeared on a morning program or was on the cover of a magazine, they were at someone’s funeral. If the courts have upheld restrictions on speech at abortion clinics, then the same should be done at funerals. The right to protest is recognized, but this defamation of perverted speech against a son and his family, and not to mention, all the people serving in the military, is entirely uncalled for. The opinion of the Fourth Circuit ended with the following sentence â€Å"Although reasonable people may disagree about the appropriateness of the Phelps’ protest†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Snyder v. Phelps, 232). What kind of reasonable person can debate that God killed Matthew Snyder because of his sexuality? Law is essentially common sense. A reasonable person would agree this is insane and no reasonable person can really debate this. Westboro Baptist Church is making outrageous prejudice remarks against a group of people that intend to cause tension and spark debate and can make for a serious situation. Now the case is waiting to be tried under the United States Supreme Court. The three claims Snyder is suing for include intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and civil conspiracy. Three questions will be presented to the United States Supreme Court when this case is heard. The first question being, does Hustler Magazine v. Falwell apply to a private person versus another private person concerning a private matter? Although this case has yet to be covered in this course, it is a landmark decision in the United State Supreme Court. In fact, it is impossible to highlight all the important cases that have passed in front of the different justices over a point in time. Nevertheless, Hustler Magazine did a so-called â€Å"interview† with Jerry Falwell, a Baptist minister, where he talked about his first sexual encounter that took place with his mother in an outhouse, under the influence of alcohol. However; Falwell never gave this interview and this incident never occurred. It was considered to be a false advertisement for an alcoholic beverage company, Campari. Falwell won his claim and was awarded money by a jury verdict, but then the United States Supreme Court overturned the ruling to say that the First Amendments free-speech guarantee prohibits awarding damages to public figures to compensate for emotional distress intentionally inflicted upon them. Westboro Baptist Church slandered Snyder with anti-gay remarks at his funeral. The signs could be taken to be true because Snyder was targeted as a homosexual. His family, friends, and the community were made aware of how his sexuality was being questioned because Westboro Baptist Church targeted homosexuals. While signs could be taken to be untrue, there are people that do feel the way this particular group does and do believe that all homosexuals are going to hell. Strict religious groups of people believe this to be true. So, Hustler Magazine vs. Falwell does not apply to this court case. Although they are similar cases, the situations are different. Unfortunately, there are some people that actually do believe in what those signs say and it serves an imminent threat to the public because hate crimes have been expressed towards gays. Even though the parents and friends knew of these allegations to be false, the greater public does not. Therefore; saying that those vile words are untrue and that they are protected under the First Amendment is false. â€Å"The United States Supreme Court has long recognized that not all speech is of equal First Amendment protection. When speech gives rise to civil tort liability, the level of First Amendment protection varies† (Snyder v. Phelps, 214). The justices need to do something about the Fourth Circuit’s mess up in this case because obviously Westboro Baptist Church and their hateful words should not be protected under the First Amendment. Leading into the next question of whether the First Amendment’s freedom of speech tenet trump the First Amendment’s freedom of religion and peaceful assembly is presented. For this particular case, freedom of speech does trump freedom of religion and peaceful assembly. The Fourth Circuit based their decision around freedom of speech and not all of the other ones. The First Amendment is a mixture of laws; it’s not just solely freedom of speech. Freedom to assembly, press, religion, and speech should all be seen as equals. We are supposed to see human beings as equals, then why cannot it be the same for these laws? One should not trump another; they should all come together and work equally as one. It is a right to be able to say whatever you want to say, but at what cost? It is another issue when people say and do rude and offensive things to people, especially in a private matter. It’s a fine line many people do not want to cross when confronting the legal issue of the First Amendment. These laws were put into effect by our forefathers many years ago, but times have changed and the world is a different place today than it was years ago, and the laws need to be updated to make it current. Freedom of speech should not have been put above freedom of religion and peaceful assembly. This is a funeral and the two that should be in place are freedom of religion and peaceful assembly. There should not have been any disturbances at this funeral. It’s wrong to demean a human being like this, especially at that particular time. Emotional distress was inflicted not only onto the family and friends, but the military as well. People are trying to mourn the loss of a United States soldier and because there is an indecent freedom of speech law, Westboro Baptist Church purposely targeted specifically traveled and disturbed the peace outside of a funeral with garbage and nonsense. Even Snyder agrees with freedom of speech, but there is a place and a time for it. â€Å"I’m all for freedom of speech,† Snyder told WBAL radio. â€Å"Don’t get me wrong, but a funeral is not the place for it. Go to a park. Go to the White House. Go anywhere† (Allen). Lastly, it asks does an individual attending a family member’s funeral constitute a captive audience who is entitled to state protection from unwanted attention. A captive audience is a person or a group of people who have gathered in a certain place for a purpose and are provided or exposed to information that are unrelated to their actual purpose of being there. An individual attending a funeral should be considered to be a captive audience and should be protected from the state from unwanted communication like those attending Snyder’s funeral. Individuals at a funeral have gathered in a certain place for a purpose, but should not be exposed to unrelated information of their being there. An individual attending a family member’s funeral is subjected to whatever is being said but is not being forced to be present. But how is that right, especially at a funeral? A funeral is a place where family and friends come together to bury a loved one and a time of mourning and somberness. Attendees of a funeral should not have to leave because of a disturbance being caused by an outside party. A person who attends a funeral is paying respect for the one who has passed. One should not have to be subjected to rude and offensive words, but the law states that if someone rudely offended an individual, it is up to that individual as to whether to stay or to leave. This is not a protest, where this may be accepted; this is a funeral. Family and friends should be entitled to protection by the state. They have the right to not attend, but that is not fair. This is not the first time Westboro Baptist Church has protested at a funeral of a fallen United States homosexual soldier in order to draw attention to its message. As of today, they have now protested at approximately 200 military funerals. This is a disgrace to America and our troops. But, since this specific occurrence, â€Å"Congress passed a federal statute on May 29, 2006 that prohibits protests of the sort involved in this case. The Kansas [Westboro Baptist Church is located in Topeka] legislature approved a similar prohibition in April 2007† (CMLP Staff). And if the United States Supreme Court does not do anything about this, all federal and state laws designed to protect families from Westboros abusive behavior will become void. Now, the case is left in the hands of the United States Supreme Court. The justices need to do what is right here, which is ruling in favor of Snyder, and remanding the Fourth Circuit’s decision. The decision made by the Fourth Circuit is a huge let down by the judicial system. The judicial branch was put into place to protect the rights of the citizens, not to stand by and let certain situations take place that are not right. Whether there are laws that â€Å"protect† these kinds of people, such as Fred Phelps, like the First Amendment, where is the justice? These laws are in place to keep order in our society, but what order can there be when people can do and say whatever they want to and know that nothing will happen to them because they will be protected? It’s truly an unfair circumstance this family had to go through. Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was a hero, who fought for this country, so that we can have the freedom and rights we have. No family should have to endure this kind of pain, especially not at a funeral. This is pure injustice and is a straight slap in the face to the men and women that fight for our country. Whether one is for or against war, these people are human beings who are risking their lives for us. And what’s ironic is that if this had happened to someone of higher power, I wonder what would have been done. Would people just stand by, especially the legal system, and say that it was alright because Fred Phelps and his congregation had the right to say whatever they wanted to, even if it did cause emotional distress on another person’s life? No one should be subjected to hatred because of gender, race, religious, or sexual preferences. How ruthless do people have to be before something is done? There is no amount of money or apologies that will bring their son back, but justice needs to be served to them to respectfully honor their son, because this is what this country stands for: freedom and protection of the people. â€Å"He was a hero and he was the love of my life,† Snyder about his late son.