Brody's Notes... Fox Commentator O'Reilly Calls Court Costs Outrage & Will Pay For Marine's Dad

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 1 | Conservative Fox News Channel Commentator and Host Bill O'Reilly has called a decision by a U. S. Court of Appeals to make the father of a slain U. S. Marine, whose solemn funeral proceedings were disrupted by protesters from Fred Phelp's Westboro Baptist Church, pay mounting court costs and fines "an outrage." Tuesday evening on his programme, The O'Reilly Factor, he told viewers that,  

"I will pay Mr. Snyder's obligation, I am not going to let this injustice stand."

Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., told Fox News he does not intend to pay $16,510 to Fred Phelps, the leader of Kansas' Westboro Baptist Church, which held protests at Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder's funeral in 2006.

"I don't think I'm going to be writing a check until I hear from the Supreme Court," Snyder told Fox News on Tuesday. "I'm not about to pay them anything."

The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered Snyder on Friday to pay Phelps. A two-page decision supplied by his attorneys offered no details on how the court came to its decision.

The decision adds "insult to injury," said Sean Summers, one of Snyder's attorneys.

Snyder is also struggling to come up with fees associated with filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, his attorneys said. The high court agreed to consider whether the protesters' message is protected by the First Amendment or limited by the competing privacy and religious rights of the mourners.

The federal appeals court dismissed the suit on First Amendment grounds earlier this month and threw out a $5 million award against the protesters, some of whom carried signs that read "God Hates You" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."  

The father & relatives of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder had filed the civil lawsuit against the Westboro Baptist Church and on a website created to honour the 20 year old Marine posted a message that reads:

"Using innocent children to deliver their twisted message of hatred and fear, the defendants in this suit have sought to attack the memory of our departed heroes, to strip their loved one of dignity, and to use abuse and intimidation as a tool for preventing surviving family members from reaching closure over their loss."