BALTIMORE (AP) _ A Topeka church that pickets soldiers' funerals is cleared of defamation charges in a lawsuit filed by the family of a Pennsylvania soldier who was killed in Iraq.

But a federal judge in Baltimore ruled Monday that the suit against Westboro Baptist church may proceed on claims of invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

A jury trial begins Monday and is expected to last two weeks.

The church claimed that Albert Snyder's 20-year-old son, Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, was taught idolatry and adultery by his parents because they divorced.

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett dismissed that claim, saying that adultery was not defamatory.

The church argued unsuccessfully that it did not invade the Snyder family's privacy during the March 2006 funeral because members picketed several hundred feet away.

Church members believe military deaths are God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)