Posted by Brad @ 3:27 pm on March 30th 2010

Fred Phelps Wins, Again

So in 2006, Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptists, as they are wont to do, picketed the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. The Marine’s family sued Phelps & co. The Snyders initially won their suit, but their victory was overturned on appeal last September.

Now, the court is ordering them to pay the Phelps’ legal bills, to the tune of $16,510.

The two-page decision supplied by attorneys for Albert Snyder of York, Pa., offered no details on how the court came to its decision.

Attorneys also said Snyder is struggling to come up with fees associated with filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The decision adds “insult to injury,” said Sean Summers, one of Snyder’s lawyers.

The high court agreed to consider whether the protesters’ message is protected by the First Amendment or limited by the competing privacy and religious rights of the mourners.

Reaction has been predictable and, I imagine, if it gets picked up by the MSM the backlash (or just regular lash) will be swift and severe. That said, it’s a common practice for the losers in such a suit to have to pay court costs (not sure entirely what the determinate is though), and as far as I know there’s no privacy or religious rights to speak of that would trump a person’s free speech rights on public property—meaning, it was a rather clear cut case on the merits (if not emotions). Forcing the marine’s family to shell out 16k to the Westboro Baptist Church that stood outside the cemetery saying their son was going to burn in hell is, however, pretty brutal and seems downright inhumane.

But I’m going to go ahead and take the very unpopular position that the court probably did the right thing (which is not always the same as the good thing) in applying standard practice to the case. Take away all the specifics and our own feelings on the matter, as you have to, and what you have is a plaintiff trying to silence the free speech of an organization because they found that speech offensive. They wrapped up the defendents in court, causing them to expend a great deal of money to defend themselves, and ultimately a court ruled that their suit could not be upheld on the merits. So, what would you have them do? If this was Glenn Beck suing a website that was mocking him, or a corporation suing Boing Boing for saying their product was crap, or Jim Condit Jr. suing us for profiling his views and history, ought it be incumbent on the defendants in those cases to incur and be stuck with the court costs necessary to keep ourselves out of jail or our life’s finances from being ruined?

So as much as my heart goes out to the Snyder’s, the system, I think, works. It’s just not always nice.

posted in: Main

9 Comments »

  1. I’ve been dealing with this story all day, as Phelps is picketing our building tomorrow. The apparent rationale is that, as Catholic educators, we are all pedophiles.

    This has sparked the usual cycle of “enlightened backlash” whereby mass gatherings of sixteen-year-olds flaunt their moral superiority by organizing counterprotests. I can hardly complain, I suppose, given that I was one of the original Phelps counter-protesters (literally, the first people ever to counter-picket the man) as a 17-year-old in 1990.

    Of course, in reality, all we do is feel good about ourselves while generating the confrontation and media coverage off of which the Phelpses feed. But I suppose every generation has to learn that lesson anew.

    Perhaps I should wear a dress to school tomorrow.

    Comment by Rojas — 3/30/2010 @ 3:35 pm

  2. Oh, and I’ll double down on Brad’s endorsement of the court’s decision. Loser pays is the appropriate standard for lawsuits of this kind, and the right to express one’s self in public is not trumped by the right of others not to have their feelings hurt.

    Comment by Rojas — 3/30/2010 @ 3:37 pm

  3. Something important to keep in mind here about the decision today — it wasn’t a surprise at all.

    The WBC’ers had already won the appeal about a month ago in the Fourth Circuit. Under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, a losing party is responsible for the prevailing parties costs on appeal. The Court has no discretion in this matter.

    Costs, by way, mean the costs related to obtaining Court transcripts and having the various briefs printed, copied, and bound in compliance with the Rules of App. Procedure. It does NOT include paying any of the attorneys fees incurred by the prevailing party in the appeal.

    I discussed this earlier today over at BtB:

    http://belowthebeltway.com/2010/03/30/marines-father-order-to-pay-appeal-costs-of-westboro-baptist-church-bigots/

    Comment by Doug Mataconis — 3/30/2010 @ 4:14 pm

  4. Cheers on the clarification. I didn’t know it was even that cut and dry. As to foregone conclusion—yeah. The reversal was in, I believe, September.

    Comment by Brad — 3/30/2010 @ 4:19 pm

  5. So does this fall in the category of anti-SLAPP?

    Comment by Jack — 3/30/2010 @ 7:50 pm

  6. And guess who is paying the bill?

    Good for him.

    Comment by Brad — 4/1/2010 @ 12:02 pm

  7. Margie Phelps, the daughter of Fred Phelps and the attorney representing the church in its appeals, also said the money that the church receives from Snyder will be used to finance demonstrations. But she also said that the order was a consequence of his decision to sue the church over the demonstration.

    “Mr. Snyder and his attorneys have engaged the legal system; there are some rules to that legal engagement,” said Phelps, a member of Westboro who says she has participated in more than 150 protests of military funerals.

    “They wanted to shut down the picketing so now they’re going to finance it,” she said.

    Comment by Brad — 4/1/2010 @ 12:06 pm

  8. And guess who is paying the bill?

    Yeah, but that’s only a small percentage of the money he fundraises.

    Comment by Rojas — 4/1/2010 @ 2:12 pm

  9. The rest goes to bondage-themed nightclubs featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

    Comment by Brad — 4/1/2010 @ 2:39 pm

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