A US church whose members cheered the death of a soldier as "punishment" for the nation's sins has been ordered to pay $10.9m (£5.2m) in damages.

The Westboro Baptist Church was taken to court by the father of Lance Cpl Matthew Snyder, a marine who died serving in Iraq in March 2006.

The church cited its constitutional right to free speech in its defence.

But Albert Snyder's lawyer urged the jury to ensure the damages were high enough to stop the church campaigning.

Read the rest here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7072404.stm





So is anyone else relieved? I hate that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment and I love when this kind of stuff happens. They'll be back in about 30-40 years though! When gays can not only adopt, serve in the military and be apologized to for being blamed for 9/11, but they can also marry. Woots for Big Brother!

I am not sure how to feel on this one. On one hand Westboro Baptist Church gets fined 10 plus million dollars, on the other their right to free speach is violated. These people make me sick, I cannot believe they have the nerve to protest at funerals. Were their rights violated due to bias in the case so that a judgement could be passed?

They are a bunch of bible thumpin nut cases. However, as I understand they were legaly protesting, so was this ruling just for damages? I guess free speech has a $10m price tag.

Honestly I don't understand how protesting at a funeral should be covered under freedom of speech. I mean a funeral is a solemn thing and should be private period. And for those that are public there should at least be legal guidelines.

I don't know if they were just merly practicing there right to free speach. I would take into account alot of what they were preaching was hate and that is not legal.

There's a time and a place for everything. Everyone should have the right to bury their dead peacefully and respectfully.

A human life is worth $10,900,000? I should go and buy some..

God Ble$$ $10.9m lol! just loose change for em, they'll just take it out of Petty Cash. 'In God we trust...fund.'

ten is not enough. The wife of the leader of the church is a lawyer, she'll have it overturned on appeal. But at leats it sends a message. Personally I'd like to strap these idiots to an ICBM and launch them into Iran, to join all the other religious idiots with influence.

Just out of curiosity has any large church organization ever been successfully sued by an individual of the public?
If so can the church claim it back as a loss of funds or something or do they just continue to go about busine as usual?

Just a couple of curious questions.....God bless

when I think of it no I can't think of any particular time a religious organization was sued successfully. What probably happened here is the judge realized he had a hot potatoe and passed it on. He opened the door for an appeal.

I hope these people DIAF!

I support free speech even if it is hateful and so on...

However going to a soldiers funeral which is a private ritual for family and friends to lay their loved one to rest and spouting hate speech is just wrong and in my opinion not covered under free speech laws.

It's one thing to protest and it's another to harass people at a funeral and this is really the issue I think.

the real issue is the dingbats are trying to take over.

we should round up all the religious nuts strap bombs to em and send them to iraq and show the terriost that we can make suicide bombers too.
of course the religious people would not be willing doing it like the terriosts.

Who gets to decide what a religious nut is?