Radio Smart Talk for Thursday, March 3:

In 2006, Spring Garden Township, York County resident Albert Snyder's son Matthew, a Marine Lance Corporal, was killed in the line of duty while serving in Iraq. Members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, who claim military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are God's retribution against the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuals, showed up at Matthew Snyder's funeral and staged a protest.

Al Snyder sued the church, claiming emotional distress and invasion of privacy, and won, but a federal appeals court threw out the verdict. Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, to consider whether the protest was legally protected free speech.

The High Court issued its ruling on Wednesday. In an 8 to 1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled the First Amendment does protect the right of Westboro Baptist Church to hold its protests outside military funerals. The Court upheld the appellate court decision to throw out a five million dollar victory for Albert Snyder.

We’ll discuss the ruling, and welcome your thoughts for Craig Trebilcock, attorney for Albert Snyder…and Wesley Oliver, Associate Professor of Law at Widener University. He teaches Constitutional law at Widener.

Listen to the program: