Philadelphia ? An attorney said he has been unable, despite more than two dozen attempts, to serve a lawsuit on members of a Kansas church that protests at military funerals across the nation.

Attorney Sean Summers, who represents the family of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church, filed a motion in federal court asking permission to post the complaint at the church and mail it to the defendants.

“They know about the lawsuit. They just haven’t allowed themselves to be served,” said Summers, an attorney for Albert Snyder, of York.

Snyder, the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, filed a federal lawsuit in June that seeks unspecified damages from the church. The younger Snyder, 20, died March 3 after an accident in the Anbar province of Iraq.

Westboro members protested during services held for the Marine at a Westminster, Md., church.

The church maintains that the military deaths in Iraq are God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality.