Phelps Takes A Hit

Long-time America-hater Fred Phelps and his family have made headlines numerous times by picketing and demonstrating at the funerals of military men and women killed in action. Yesterday, military families (and millions of other people around the country who are equally outraged by Phelps) got some payback:

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., the father of a Westminster Marine who was killed in Iraq, today won his case in a Baltimore federal court against members of Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church who protested at his son’s funeral last year.

The jury of five women and four men awarded Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages. The amount of punitive damages to be awarded has not yet been decided.

The Snyder family is the first in the country to legally stick the Phelps family. The official charges were that Phelps' demonstration violated [Snyder's] privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional harm and engaged in a conspiracy to carry out their activities.

Michelle Malkin and Right Truth both have a wealth of links on the issue.

Hopefully this is just the first of many. Free speech is one thing; what Phelps does is something entirely different.

There's my two cents.