Court overturns WBC judgment

[keokuk]

A civil lawsuit won by the father of a fallen Marine against members of the Westboro Baptist Church was overturned by an appeals court in Virginia.

With that, the $5 million judgment and lien on the church's building and law firm has been dismissed. Calling from New York City where she was protesting at the United Nations building, church spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper said she was happy the father filed the lawsuit.

"If he hadn't put us on trial, we wouldn't have exploded around the world," she said of the media exposure.

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-...s_wbc_judgment

The decision of the Fourth Circuit is available here. It was a 3-0 decision, with the majority opinion tossing the decision on First Amendment grounds and a concurring opinion finding for defendants based on Maryland state law.