Memorial Day is a happy day for most of us, eager for a day with family, friends and fun. Others, like my neighbors, have a day to grieve and reflect, searching for answers after the loss of one of their own.

But for one parent, it will be especially difficult. In addition to coping with the death of a son in Iraq, he’ll have to pay $16,000 in legal fees to a hate group that protested his son’s funeral, according to Gordon Lubold’s article “Dad of a fallen Marine perseveres against protests at military funerals,” posted in the Christian Science Monitor.

You see, the Westboro “Baptist” Church is so mad at our military for policies like “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” that they go around blaming homosexuality for every soldier’s death. And they make sure their mean-spirited messages are 30 feet from the entrance of a church where the funeral is.

This doesn’t mean that Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder (who died), his father, or anyone else in the case is gay. That’s not the point for this protest group. But they want to wave their signs saying “Thank God for dead soldiers” in the faces of mourners, who still have to pass these groups on their way into the worst moment of their lives. According to Lubold, Snyder’s dad had to use a separate entrance to his own son’s funeral.

I had a hard time believing that this was actually a Baptist Church, since almost every Baptist I have met is supportive of the war and the troops. And my son goes to a Baptist Church school. But thankfully, Baptists have rejected this group. That’s why I used quotations for Westboro’s “affiliation.”

Rather than cower, Snyder decided to stand up to these bullies, battling them in court. He won a $5 million judgment against them in a lower court, but a Federal Appeals Court said otherwise. Not only did the judges reverse the settlement, but they are forcing Mr. Snyder to pay the Westboro Church’s $16,000 in court costs.

Looking at the Westboro Church’s schedule, I see that they never seem to lack the resources to attend the funerals of others American servicemen and servicewomen. Now they’ll have more money to humiliate more dead soldiers.

The lawsuit doesn’t say Westboro Church is forbidden to speak. They have the right to take their message to a public park or some other public place to garner attention. But should they be allowed to cheer the deaths of Americans so close to a place of private worship and grieving?

Lawmakers should consider the issue of public spaces, hate speech, and the right of the individual to a few moments of peace and quiet after a loved one has made the ultimate sacrifice.

“Summers (Snyder’s attorney) argues that his client’s right to peaceful assembly and freedom of religion were infringed by the protests and that, unlike at a public park where people are free to express themselves, a funeral setting draws a ‘captive audience’ that requires attendees to be in a particular location - they can’t simply walk away,” Lubold writes.

Thankfully, Snyder is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, it might be worth our while to see if he has any legal defense fund, where we can help him defray the expenses of having to pay for someone else’s attorney, in case the Supreme Court shoots down his argument.