(Thumbnail Image: KMBC)

"Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church showed up at Matthew's funeral with hate spewing from their signs and their mouths..."

Now the father of that slain soldier is being ordered to pay the court costs for protesters who showed up uninvited at his son's funeral. Albert Snyder says he won't pay those court costs, awaiting an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But many are angry over what they say was a judicial decision that didn't need to be made.

We start with Albert Snyder himself, who told Fox News he feels betrayed by the decision.

"It's almost as if the Fourth Circuit was saying to me:  Not only are we going to overturn the verdict, but now you have to pay them $16,000 so that they can go out and do this to other families."

The blog Hot Air represents much of what is being said online.  While courts often make the losing party pay court costs, it doesn't have to do so.

"Just because something is commonly done doesn’t mean it is to be done every time. It’s bad enough the Fred Phelps and his band of lowlifes are emerging victorious in this. The judge apparently wants to rub salt into the hero’s father’s wound. I just cannot believe that a judge can be so heartless and cruel."

Kansas City Star Columnist Matthew Schofield finds the decision hard to understand or justify.

"...while the First Amendment to the Constitution protects his free speech, the architects of that document would be appalled to see it thus applied. The intent was never to encourage pointless hatred and cruelty.  Is there some reason this had to happen? If so, it tests faith in the courts, and goes beyond reason."

Westboro Church member, Shirley Phelps-Roper tells Russia Today they could not have disturbed Mr. Snyder's privacy like his attorneys claim.

"We don't go to the funeral, we go in proximity to the funeral. At that funeral, no one going to the funeral saw us, we were more than a thousand feet away."

Snyder says he won't pay Phelps until The Supreme Court hears the case in the fall, but the fee has spurred an outpouring of support and donations to Snyder, including one from Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

"That is an outrage, and I will pay Mr. Snyder's obligation. I'm not going to let this injustice stand. It's obvious those cranks at Westboro were intentionally trying to hurt Mr. Snyder and his family. It's obvious they were disturbing the peace by disrupting the funeral."

So what do you think? Has the court overstepped its bounds? Or does the protection of the First Amendment trump all else?

Writers: Newsy Staff, Erika Roberts

Producer: Newsy Staff