Father Files Suit Against Westboro Church

The father of a Marine Corporal who was killed in Iraq filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court against the Westboro Baptist Church, which picketed his son's funeral.

Attorneys for Albert Snyder filed the 67-page brief arguing that the First Amendment should not protect members of the church who picketed the funeral.

Westboro Baptist Church members who protested at the funeral said the deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's retribution for the country's tolerance of gay people.

The Supreme Court agreed in March to take the case, and justices will hear it during the court's next term, beginning in October, KWTX, a Waco, Texas, television station reported.

Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder died in March 2006 in Iraq in a non-combat-related vehicle accident.