authorities. this notice had matt s picture on it. it has a military coffin. underneath it, it s burial of an ass. then it went on to say we ll be protesting at st. john s catholic dog kennel. wow. i knew they were go to come there. they stood 30 feet from the main vehicle entrance of the church, and what the vehicle procession had to be rerouted, we still came within 300 feet of the church. well, this is a very important case regarding free speech. we re definitely watching this very closely. we re not expecting a decision for months, though. just remember, john, the slippery slope can go either way. al snyder, thanks so much for being with us this morning. and we do appreciate your loss and i just can t imagine what it would be like as a family to go through something like that. thanks for joining us this morning. thank you, john. well, still to come, a rare look this morning, inside the sarah palin political machine.
it is a curse for your young men and women to be coming home in body bags f. you want that to stop, stop sinning. well, many families have endured the attacks over the year but corporal snyder s dad s lawsuit is before the highest court of the land. john roberts talked to him this morning and tough to deal with this this morning, john. it is tough. you can imagine, you d lose your son, 20-year-old lance corporal in the marines, matthew snyder. married in 2006. protesters show up like that with signs outside the funeral. al said it was like being kicked in the gut. they sued a. lower court awarded the family $5 million and that was overturned by an appeals court which is now it s before the supreme court of the united states. it is a very important case pitting family privacy against
freedom of speech and it seems to be that the supreme court is wanting to come down on the side of the family and may have their hands dtied. route bader ginsburg said nothing the church members appeared to be illegal and said this of the church. why should the first amendment tolerate exploiting this bereaved family when you have so many other forums for getting across your message? and i said to al snyder this morning, okay, it might have been very, very offensive. was it legal? here s what he told me. it might not have been illegal but it did cause emotional stress and emotional damage, and, you know, you have to look at this as tort law, too. there s a lot involved in this, just other than free speech. you know, it gets me so much, john, hearing the people say, well, this is what your son died for. you know, you didn t know my son so don t tell me what he died for, first of all.
corporal carter. his daughter is arguing before the supreme court. when you have a public funeral and you broadcast to the nation that that dead soldier say hero and that god is blessing america, we will be there and tell you god is cursing america. it is a curse for your young men and women to be coming home in body bags. and if you want that to stop, stop sending. albert snyder is the man at the center of it. he s matthew snyder s father. al, thanks for joining us. i want to talk about the supreme court because you were there yet. first of all, tell us a little bit about your son, lance corporal matthew snyder? matt was a good kid. he was 20 when he was killed over in iraq. he was the middle of three children. matt always had just a great personality.
great abuse of free speech. nobody has the right to target an individual person for their benefit. that s basically what they do. they target funerals to get the publicity for it. they just pick out anybody at random and say, this person, we will blame him and use his funeral to go after some tolerance of gay rights somewhere. it s a generalized assault. they pick out one person to do it. they pick out the one that will get the most reaction. they were working with gays and lesbians. they went to matthew shepherd in oregon. they get more fire by not going after a gay person but picking somebody at random. now, the military funeral, with a service member who has given the ultimate sacrifice. that s where you get a big reaction. al snyder is a private person. the first amendment does not give you the right to hijack supposed you go to a guy s funeral and start yelling