This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case involving a dead Marine, privacy rights at funerals and the 1st Amendment. Case is: Snyder v. Phelps, a very very tragic story for the family, see this link for more info - www.matthewsnyder.org . In a nutshell - the case involves the picketing at a deceased Marine's funeral involving the defendant Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church. The plaintiff, Albert Snyder, the father of a U.S. marine killed in Iraq, won a $10.9 million jury verdict for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the Phelps clan as a result of their picketing his son's funeral carrying offensive, unpatriotic, and antigay messages, as well as their publication of "The Burden of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder" on the church's website.
Here is a link to the Good Morning America piece that aired yesterday morning: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/; CNN's coverage on March 30: http://www.cnn.com and the Baltimore Sun's recent story: http://themoderatevoice.com/
The family needs our help! They need to raise money because the 4th Circuit mordered them to pay the defendants court costs in the amount of $36K. In addition, the family also needs $20K for printing the Supreme Court brief and are facing a demand for an additional $97K because of a cost petition at the District Court. So, we are trying to get the word out to as many people who may want to donate/help, because every donation - no matter how small - will help will all the costs needed to take this to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, because this is not a non-profit, donations are not tax deductible. But donations can be sent through the website - www.matthewsnyder.org or made payable to "Al Snyder Fund" and sent to the family's lawyer, Sean Summers
Additionally, you can show support for the effort by posting an entry and joining the Facebook group by clicking here.
Mr. Snyder's daughter has also started a Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/
