Westboro Baptist Church ordered to pay $5 million (church that protests at military funerals)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/02/westboro_baptist_church_must_p.html

by The Patriot-News
Friday February 29, 2008, 8:25 AM

Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kan., church that protests at military funerals, must pay the $5 million owned to Albert Snyder of Spring Garden Twp., York County, according to a decision by a federal judge.

The York Dispatch reports that the judge denied a request further reduce the monetary damages awarded in a federal lawsuit that was filed after the church protested the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett in Maryland was asked by church officials to reconsider the damage award, dismiss the case or overrule the verdict, according to the newspaper.

[hobbit709]

1. Great, Now to make them pay up.

Maybe their property should be seized and sold.

[melody]

2. Well, there goes Fred's clandestine monumental pile of gay porn

And the Brady Bunch DVDs.

[flvegan]

4. Agreed,

Take whatever you can from them.

[salin]

5. Their compound could be converted into affordable housing.

[tachyon]

3. Blood, turnip............like that

:shrug:

[salin]

6. Turnip?

they own land and several homes on that land to form a "compound". It wouldn't add up to 5 million, but it could be liquidated (sold) to raise some cash.

[tachyon]

8. Yes but homesteaded property is exempt from civil judgments.

That's usually a good thing - but not always. Legal protections have a way of being inconvenient in certain cases.
;-)

[Hobarticus]

14. How do they afford to travel like they do?

Do any of these people even work?

Gotta be some source of income in there, somewhere, to bleed dry. Once they sold the property, then that money's up for grabs, right?

Even if this judgement cut off the funding for travel, and never paid off the award in full, at least that's a victory of sorts.

[LeftyMom]

16. They've almost all got law degrees.

They make their money by making asses of themselves in public and suing anybody who tries to stop them.

[Hobarticus]

17. Can someone be disbarred for being a kook?

That'd be a start, to shut off the faucet.

[ArbustoBuster]

20. Phelps was disbarred years ago.

He was disbarred in Kansas in 1979 and kicked out of federal courts a decade later. Unfortunately, his kids are lawyers, too.

[ruggerson]

7. Interesting that the newspaper defines them as the "church that protests at military funerals"

when the reality is they are the church that is defined by their obsessive hatred of gay people.

That is their sole mission. That is WHY they protest at military funerals.

[VermeerLives]

9. Westboro

Agree with above -- too bad their tax-exempt status cannot be revoked.

[Hobarticus]

15. Welcome to DU!!!

Question: why CAN'T tax-exempt status be revoked?

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Yeah, that vague phrasing doesn't really explain the evil they perpetuate

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. Good news!

Under what laws were they fined? Everyone who loses a loved one to violence and finds out these creatures are coming to protest should be ready to do the same thing that Mr. Snyder did.

[libnnc]

12. Awesome news...can they make them pay it?

Or will they keep appealing and traveling around?

I'd like to know how they get the dough to make the rounds to all these funerals.

[Cheap_Trick]

13. take every penny

that twisted fucker and his fucked up family has. the next signs they hold up will read "homeliss. will wurk for food. oh, and fags are bad."

[Laurier]

18. Good!

Now, let's hope that Mr. Snyder can collect the money from those lowlifes.

[orleans]

19. 5th recommendation. i hope fred & crew lose everything & end up

in prison for not being able to cough up the full amount