Marathon Pundit: Phelps' church seeks direct appeal to SCOTUS

Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist got a rock in its trick or treat bag on Halloween, courtesy of a federal jury that ordered the hate-church to pay $11 million for breaking a federal anti-funeral picketing law and invasion of privacy.

The church doesn't have the money to pay the plaintiff, the father of a soldier who was killed in Iraq--Phelps' church protested at the son's funeral.

From the Wichita Eagle:

Westboro Baptist Church has taken an unusual legal move by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a Maryland lawsuit and a Nebraska criminal case to protect the church's right to protest at military funerals.

The Topeka church believes the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality. The church argues the Supreme Court should step in because the pending lower court cases could inhibit its members' protests, which they consider an expression of their religious faith.

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And one of the church's leaders, Shirley Phelps-Roper, is facing criminal charges of flag mutilation and negligent child abuse tied to a protest at a Bellevue, Neb., soldier's funeral in June.

Ronald Collins, a scholar at the First Amendment Center, said the church's Supreme Court filing seems bizarre to him because no appellate courts have evaluated the lawsuit verdict and the criminal case has not even gone to trial. He said it's unusual to combine two different cases from different states and jurisdictions in one motion. "I can't imagine the Supreme Court doing anything with this," Collins said.