SNYDER v. PHELPS

Legal Principle at Issue

Whether protesters can be held liable in court for inflicting intentional emotional distress when picketing a funeral with hyperbolic signs, some of which are directed at the deceased.

Action

The Supreme Court upheld the Fourth Circuit’s ruling that picketing is protected expression.

Facts/Syllabus

Fred Phelps founded the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, in 1955. The church’s congregation believes that God hates and punishes the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality, particularly in America’s military. The church frequently communicates its views by picketing, often at military funerals. In the more than 20 years that the members of Westboro Baptist have publicized their message, they have picketed nearly 600 funerals.

Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was killed in Iraq in the line of duty. Snyder’s father selected the Catholic church in his hometown of Westminster, Maryland, as the site for his son’s funeral. Local newspapers provided notice of the time and location of the service.

Phelps became aware of Snyder’s funeral and traveled to Maryland with six other Westboro Baptist parishioners (two of his daughters and four of his grandchildren) to picket. On the day of the memorial service, the Westboro parishioners picketed on public land adjacent to public streets near the Maryland State House, the United States Naval Academy, and Snyder’s funeral. The Westboro picketers carried signs that were largely the same at all three locations, stating, for instance: “God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,” “America is Doomed,” “Don’t Pray for the USA,” “Thank God for IEDs,” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “Pope in Hell,” “Priests Rape Boys,” “God Hates Fags,” “You’re Going to Hell,” and “God Hates You.”

The church notified the authorities in advance of its intent to picket at the time of the funeral, and the picketers complied with police instructions in staging their demonstration approximately 1,000 feet from the church where the funeral was held. (Several buildings separated the picket site from the church.) The Westboro picketers displayed their signs for about 30 minutes before the funeral began, sang hymns and recited Bible verses. None of the picketers entered church property, went to the cemetery, or used profanity. The funeral procession passed within 200 to 300 feet of the picket site. Although Snyder testified that he could see the tops of the picket signs as he drove to the funeral, he did not see what was written on the signs until later that night, while watching a news broadcast covering the event.

Snyder filed suit against Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Snyder alleged five state tort law claims: defamation, publicity given to private life, intentional infliction of emotional distress, intrusion upon seclusion, and civil conspiracy. Westboro moved for summary judgment contending, in part, that the church’s speech was insulated from liability by the First Amendment. The federal District Court awarded Westboro summary judgment on Snyder’s claims for defamation and publicity given to private life, concluding that Snyder could not prove the necessary elements of those torts.

A trial was held on the remaining claims. At trial, Snyder described the severity of his emotional injuries. He testified that he is unable to separate the thought of his dead son from his thoughts of Westboro’s picketing, and that he often becomes tearful, angry, and physically ill when he thinks about it. Expert witnesses testified that Snyder’s emotional anguish had resulted in severe depression and had exacerbated pre-existing health conditions. A jury found for Snyder on the intentional infliction of emotional distress, intrusion upon seclusion, and civil conspiracy claims, and held Westboro liable for $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages. Westboro filed several post-trial motions, including a motion contending that the jury verdict was grossly excessive and a motion seeking judgment as a matter of law on all claims on First Amendment grounds. The federal District Court remitted the punitive damages award to $2.1 million, but left the jury verdict otherwise intact.

In the Court of Appeals, Westboro’s primary argument was that the church was entitled to judgment as a matter of law because the First Amendment fully protected Westboro’s speech. The Court of Appeals agreed. The court reviewed the picket signs and concluded that Westboro’s statements were entitled to First Amendment protection because those statements were on matters of public concern, were not provably false, and were expressed solely through hyperbolic rhetoric.

Importance of Case

Hurtful and hyperbolic expression that predominantly addresses a matter of public concern is protected by the First Amendment for purposes of state tort law claims.

The Supreme Court held that the picketing was protected by the 1st Amendment and precluded recovery for the plaintiff, relying on Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), which had held that the 1st Amendment can bar recovery for intentional infliction of emotional distress; Connick v. Meyers (1983), which held that matters of public concern receive special protection; Rankin v. McPherson (1987), which held that whether a statement addresses public concern is not impacted by its controversial expression; and Rowan v. U.S. Post Office Dept. (1970), which had articulated a captive audience doctrine different from the circumstances here. Westboro’s picketing addressed public issues like homosexuality in the military and the fate of the nation and maintained a distance from the funeral service as to not make the plaintiff a captive audience. That some messaging directly addressed the memory of Matthew Snyder and that the messaging was expressed in a hurtful manner did not change the picketing’s dominant emphasis on matters of public concern.