Funeral Protesters Lose $11m Lawsuit

The father of a fallen Marine was awarded nearly $11 million in damages Oct. 31 by a jury that found leaders of a fundamentalist church had invaded the family's privacy and inflicted emotional distress when they picketed his son's funeral. Albert Snyder of York, Pa. sued the Topeka, Kansas Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified monetary damages after members staged a demonstration at the March 2006 funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq. The defense said it planned to appeal and one of the church's leaders, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the members would continue their pickets of military funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as " Thank God for dead soldiers " and " God hates fags. "