Protesting Funerals Emotionally Harmful

Whoever said “I’ll rest when I’m dead” never heard of the Topeka Westboro Baptist Church. Church members have taken it upon themselves to celebrate the death of U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq war by protesting in front of funeral events of the dead soldier. “Their message: The death of soldiers in Iraq is God’s vengeance against America for tolerating homosexuality.”

The father of the fallen soldier was so outraged that he decided to file a lawsuit against the church in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Northern Division, basing his complaint not so much on restrictions of free speech but rather on intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. After the jury awarded the fallen soldier’s family $2.9 million, with an additional $8 million in punitive damages, God appealed! Furthermore, the interesting factor in this case hinges on the role video documentation plays for both parties (for defendant proof that hate of gays is part of its religion; for plaintiff that Church’s speech is emotionally harmful), and of course the Church’s free speech claim. Read more here.