Mo1 wrote: “this was a civil suite case and not a governement (sic) case.”
Please explain. Do you know how the jury arrived at the $11 million amount? Unfortunately, the article doesn’t have a lot of the legal details.
From BreitBart...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SKEED02&show_article=1
“BALTIMORE (AP) - A federal jury on Wednesday awarded the father of a fallen Marine $2.9 million in compensatory damages after finding an anti-gay Kansas church and three of its leaders liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress for picketing the Marine’s funeral in 2006.”
Also...
” The jury was to begin deliberating the size of punitive damages after receiving further instructions, although U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the compensatory award “far exceeds the net worth of the defendants,” according to financial statements filed with the court.”
This is how they arrived at the $11 million award.
This is a civil case.
The government has no interest or involement and therefore is NOT a ‘free speech’ or First Ammendment violation of rights.
The First Ammendment does NOT protect you from a citizen suing you for libel, slander or emotional distress or any other ‘speech’ you make.
The First Ammendment was written to protect you from the Government. NOT citizens.