April 04, 2010|By Tricia Bishop | tricia.bishop@baltsun.com
As a plaintiff, Snyder has sat at the same table with the Phelpses and endured hours of examination by their doctors and lawyers. He has testified in court, sometimes through tears. He does interviews from morning to night and worries about how he'll pay the expenses associated with the case, already in the tens of thousands of dollars and rising. While the lawyers donate their time, Snyder has to pay the copying and filing fees.
He says he offered again and again to drop the lawsuit if Westboro would stop picketing funerals, but the church wouldn't agree.
When a Maryland jury awarded him $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages in October 2007, Snyder was shocked. He wasn't in it for the money and doesn't expect to see a dime, but a number that big sends a message that such behavior will not be tolerated. The message persisted even after U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett reduced the award to $5 million a few months later.
In September 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., overturned the lower court's verdict, with two of the three judges citing the church members' right to free speech. But Snyder and his attorneys are still fighting.
"The reality is, if they said the same exact things that they said, but they did it at their church in Topeka, nobody would have cared," Summers said last month from his office at Barley Snyder LLC in York. "But they traveled all this way to specifically target the Snyder family and protest the funeral. For anyone to suggest they had their freedom of speech taken away, that's just nonsense."
To Snyder, this is a matter of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and his lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court to take the case on those grounds. They're asking the court to consider several things, including whether free-speech rules apply to private individuals in private settings. On March 8, shortly after the fourth anniversary of Matthew's death, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in the fall.
During the past four years, Snyder has been interviewed by Australian, Canadian and Chinese news media. And he has received thousands of letters and e-mail messages via the Web site matthewsnyder.org from soldiers and their parents around the world.
The outpouring has changed him, said David Bader, manager of the York electric company where Snyder works as an industrial equipment salesman. "He feels he has an obligation to the memory of his son, but also to other families," Bader said.
Snyder has taken on Westboro alone. He won't allow others to be involved, though he draws strength from his daughters and their encouragement.
"They have stood by from the beginning," he said.
Both Sarah and Tracie Snyder declined to be interviewed for this article, but in an e-mail message, they described their father as a hero.
"By continuing on with this trial he has the chance to make it so that no one will ever have to go through this ordeal that our family and many other families have gone through," they wrote. "It has not been easy for him, and he has faced challenges, but that will not stop him. He is a strong man, and even stronger now with the Nation behind him."
Snyder knows there are still many months ahead. But even if the Supreme Court does not find in his favor, he thinks he will be OK.
"Even if it doesn't go my way, I won," he said, "because I know that I took it all the way for Matt. I couldn't have taken it any further." The Snyder saga • March 3, 2006: Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, is killed in Iraq in a Humvee crash. • March 8, 2006: Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., releases a flier saying members plan to picket the funeral. • March 10, 2006: Westboro members carry signs such as "God hates fags" outside Snyder's funeral in Westminster. • June 5, 2006: His father, Albert Snyder, files a federal lawsuit against the church and its leaders. • Oct. 31, 2007: A jury in U.S. District Court in Baltimore awards Albert Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages. • Feb 4, 2008: A federal judge reduces the award to $5 million. • Sept. 24, 2009: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit overturns the verdict, ruling that Westboro's speech is constitutionally protected. • March 8, 2010: The Supreme Court agrees to hear the case in the fall. • March 26, 2010: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rules that Snyder has to pay Westboro's appeal costs of $16,510. • Oct. 4, 2010: The fall term begins for the Supreme Court. SOURCE: Sun research
