Snyder V Phelps Summary

613 Words2 Pages

Snyder v. Phelps (2010) was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Westboro Baptist Church had a protest during a late marine’s, Matthew Snyder, funeral. The church’s members are blunt in their actions and have very strong, prejudice opinions focusing on America. For example, they have absolutely no tolerance for the LGBTQ community, Jews and even Catholics; they also regularly hold protests in front of high schools and even military funerals. Matthew’s father, Albert Snyder, sued the leader of Westboro Baptist Church’s protests, Fred Phelps, on account that Phelps caused emotional and physical distress, invaded private property, and used, “fighting words,” which are considered unconstitutional. The question that arose from …show more content…

The distress caused was most likely due to being at his only son’s funeral. Of course any loved one’s death would surely have an impact on someone's physical and emotional health.
Another argument Snyder brought up was invasion of property and disturbance of peace. Now this could have been good evidence to back Snyder up, if it were not for the fact that Phelps got police permission and stood a proper distance away from the church. In addition, Phelps left around the time that the the funeral began.
Looking back to a similar case, Virginia v. Black(2003), “Barry Black burned a cross at a rally for the KKK near a highway in a field on private property belonging to a person who was sympathetic to the views of the klan.” The Supreme Court concluded that it was in Black’s rights to burn a cross as a political statement as long as he was not trying to threaten any specific person. Both cases involve being accused of trespassing on private property. However, if there is no intention to harm, you are protected by the 1st.

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