This is just wrong. It really burns me up to read about Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder’s dad having to pay a radical like Fred Phelps for court costs ("Dead Marine’s dad ordered to pay protesters’ court costs," article, March 31). I don’t see how the Supreme Court could take so long to decide whether the protesters’ message is protected by the First Amendment.

These people are biting the hand that feeds them. Marines like Snyder, and countless other troops who have died in combat, are the reason people like Phelps have any rights at all. Some people take these rights we have for granted. Every other servicemember and I gave up our constitutional rights to protect the rights of everyone else, and radicals like Phelps abuse their rights by picketing the funerals of those servicemembers who died protecting those rights.

Cpl. Thomas BeaulieuCombat Outpost Fiddler’s Green, Afghanistan