The Westboro Baptist Church now has a serious debt

[Squeezer]

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals in the belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the award for compensating damages "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants," according to financial statements filed with the court.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/law/1....ap/index.html

Maybe there is a God after all.

[Chao.]

Amen.

[Kolar]

The 2.9 million alone in compensatory damages is 3 times that of their net worth. But the jury awarded punitive damages so they're fucked. Like always they're claiming free speech but the suit was about harassment and other things (basically their methods not about their message).

[Chao.]

That reminds me, they did this to a father of a recently deceased soldier close to my home town as well, really serves these fuckers right.

[Mantra-Slider]

hehe, crazy people.

[winipcfg]

I hope the Westboro Baptist Church goes to hell. I'm all for freedom of speech, but there are very basic rules of respect that all people should be afforded. Calling a fallen family member/friend a "fag" or their death as "punishment" for homosexuality crosses way beyond those rules.

[Pandagirl!]

Agreed. If they had showed up at my friend's funeral a few years back I would have popped them all in the face.

[Ronn]

Theyre gonna look like martyrs

[PaulOakenfold]

All this means is that it's going to spend years and years in appeals court now and amount to nothing.

[Ayano]

I hope the Westboro Baptist Church goes to hell. I'm all for freedom of speech, but there are very basic rules of respect that all people should be afforded. Calling a fallen family member/friend a "fag" or their death as "punishment" for homosexuality crosses way beyond those rules.

But is that harassment worth 11 million? I'm no fan of their practice, but logically and legally, the case is completely biased as if the father choose trial by jury knowing he'd pocket the cash.

They'll appeal.

[Noah]

I actually don't mind a biased legal system, when the legal system becomes biased by the actions the defendant has done.

It's human nature to become biased in those situation, and if you have done something to deserve that, then welcome to loserville. Population: You.

[Singularity]

How is it that lawsuits in the states always tend to go for insane amounts of money.

11 million? Come on... If there were 4 persons traumatized by the event, so severely they couldn't work ever again and you would compensate for salary it wouldn't even get close to 11 million.
Next thing you know they will be printing warnings on pizza boxes "warning, the pizza might be hot after baking"... for fear of (totally bullshit) lawsuits. And yes, i actually noticed this warning last week on a UK pizza box.

We are talking about money from the collective church anyway, of which a lot of good could've been done as well.

Edit: ye, the people were fuckers anyway and should've gotten punished, but this isn't a fitting punishment imho
This might be more so:

Taste of their own medicin

[Epinephrine]

Hahaha GG.

The way the American system works I believe is that one person can sue for damages wrought on to lots of people. So say 100 people get hurt because of something bad and only 1 guy sues, that 1 guy can claim the damages for all 100 people. This is why American judgements are always so ridiculously large.

[PaulOakenfold]

Hahaha GG.

The way the American system works I believe is that one person can sue for damages wrought on to lots of people. So say 100 people get hurt because of something bad and only 1 guy sues, that 1 guy can claim the damages for all 100 people. This is why American judgements are always so ridiculously large.

That's a class action suit which is different. It's when a couple of people are able to step forward to either sue or press charges.

Civil court is different from criminal court. You can sue for some pretty dumb shit (not that this is).

[Kolar]

We are talking about money from the collective church anyway, of which a lot of good could've been done as well.

This church is not affiliated with any official denomination. Read up on the group. If they were more into helping the homeless or picketing Congress and not the funerals of dead service men and women, much less spreading a sickening brand of fundamentalist Christianity then I might agree with you.