Fred Phelps, founder and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., claims to be a man of God. But when I interviewed him days after he initiated a vulgar protest at a dead Marine’s funeral, he reminded me more of Lucifer.

America, he insisted, had “gone the way of the Brokeback Mountain,” before adding: “God’s wrath is upon this nation. And he’s pouring out that wrath by killing these soldiers and maiming these soldiers in Iraq and sending them back in body bags. And it’s only going to get worse.”

Though we “met” by way of a cable television connection, I remember how disturbed his fiery eyes left me.

Phelps was belligerent to the point that I had to cut off the interview just moments after it started. Now I hope the Supreme Court will do likewise.

The case the high court has agreed to hear pertains to Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who died in combat in Iraq on March 3, 2006. Joining his family, friends and loved ones at his funeral a week later were Phelps and several protesters from Westboro Baptist. According to a lower court’s recounting of the facts: “They traveled to Matthew Snyder’s funeral in order to publicize their message of God’s hatred of America for its tolerance of homosexuality.”

Unfortunately, their signage reflected that perverse ideology: “God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,” “Pope in Hell,” “America is Doomed,” “Fag Troops,” “You’re Going to Hell,” “God Hates You,” “Semper Fi Fags,” “Thank God for IEDs,” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

Following that debacle, Matthew Snyder’s father, Albert, sued Phelps and some of his parishioners, initially winning a $10 million-plus award. That sum was reduced by a district judge and eventually, last September, thrown out all together by the 4th U.S. Court Circuit of Appeals.

“As utterly distasteful as these signs are,” Judge Robert King wrote in the court’s opinion, “they involve matters of public concern, including the issue of homosexuals in the military, the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, and the political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens.” They are protected by the First Amendment, the court concluded, because they didn’t assert “objectively verifiable facts” that specifically apply to Matthew or Albert Snyder.

It remains to be seen whether those sentiments will carry when the Supreme Court hears the case during its next session, which begins in October.

The lawyer in me hopes the court restricts Westboro’s free speech rights in the same way it has in the past with regard to defamation, obscenity and so-called fighting words. It’s a crime to yell “fire” in the theater. It should be one to yell “fag” at a fallen soldier’s funeral as well.

That said, the extent to which we afford freedom of speech to funeral crashers is hardly the most important element of the Snyder case.

The First Amendment reads in full: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

But by picketing Lance Cpl. Snyder’s funeral, didn’t Westboro Baptist infringe upon the family’s First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion? Which on March 10, 2006, took the form of a burial service at St. John’s Catholic Church in Westminster, Md.

And because Westboro wasn’t protesting on a street corner or in a public park, it could also follow that they infringed upon the Snyders’ right to peaceably assemble for that private funeral service.

The point is that while Phelps and his flock may believe they have a constitutionally protected right to protest at a funeral, that right should not come at the expense of the Snyders’ right to peaceably gather at a Catholic funeral. Especially when that practice involved mourning the death of an American hero.

“When the 4th Circuit decided in favor of Phelps against Mr. Snyder, implicitly they decided that Mr. Phelps’ rights were more important than Mr. Snyder’s rights,” Sean Summers, the attorney representing the Snyder family, told me in a phone conversation last week. That should not stand.

If it does, perhaps the best we can ask for is the continued vigilance of the Patriot Guard Riders. They’re a national coalition of motorcycle enthusiasts who formed specifically to provide a physical buffer between mourning military families and picketers from Westboro Baptist.

The Patriot Guard was there on March 10, 2006, when Matthew Snyder was buried, as they have been for hundreds of other funerals across the country. “We have one thing in common besides motorcycles,” their mission statement reads. “We have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for America’s freedom and security.”

Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder fought and died for that freedom. In this case, the Supreme Court should deny its fruits to Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church.