On Monday in Snyder v. Phelps, (D MD, Oct. 30, 2006), a Maryland federal district court handed down an initial decision in a suit against Westboro Baptist Church, its pastor Fred W. Phelps, Sr., and several other members of the church brought by Albert Snyder, the father of a U.S. Marine Lance Corporal who was killed in Iraq. In the suit, Snyder alleged that the defendants committed various torts when they protested at his son's funeral and made offensive Internet postings. Defendants, as they have done elsewhere around the country, intruded on Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder's funeral with signs protesting homosexuality, Catholicism and the military. They also posted on their website messages saying things such as Plaintiff and his wife had "raised [Matthew] for the devil".
The court rejected several jurisdictional objections raised by Phelps and the other defendants. It held that Snyder adequately state a claim for defamation, intrusion on seclusion, publicity of private life, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. The court held that it did not have enough information before it at this stage of the proceedings to determine whether or not defendants' actions were constitutionally protected by the First Amendment's free exercise clause.
