In Gaddy v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (D UT, July 28, 2021), a Utah federal district court dismissed most of the claims in an amended complaint by a former LDS Church member alleging that several basic teachings of the Church involve misrepresentations. The court previously dismissed plaintiff’s original complaint. (See prior posting.) In passing on her amended complaint, the court said in part: Gaddy’s new…

In Howard v. Heritage Fellowship, (VA Cir. Ct., June 30, 2021), a Virginia state trial court refused to dismiss a suit by five church members challenging the membership vote on employment of a senior pastor.  The court said in part: … Plaintiffs bring suit in concern of whether “the Deacons Board’s decision to finalize the membership roll after the results of the 2018 election was in compliance with Bylaws, Constitution and other applicable policies.”… [N]one…

President Biden today announced the names of four individuals who he intends to nominate to key positions involving religious affairs. Two of the nominations are for positions at the ambassadorial level: Rashad Hussain, Nominee for Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Deborah Lipstadt, Nominee for Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism with the Rank of Ambassador Two others are nominations to USCIRF:  Khizr Khan, Appointee for Commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious…

In Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., (11th Cir., July 28, 2021), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an Alabama federal district court’s dismissal of a defamation and religious discrimination suit brought by a Christian ministry and media company.  At issue is Amazon’s customer-choice charitable donation program which excludes as possible beneficiaries organizations that are designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Coral Ridge was listed as a…

 CNN Reports that a criminal complaint in a Massachusetts state trial court charges now-defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years old.  The charges grow out of abuse of a boy beginning in 1974. McCarrick becomes the highest ranking Catholic clergy member to face criminal charges for sex abuse of a minor.…

In Hammons v. University of Maryland Medical System Corporation, (D MD, July 28, 2021), a transgender man challenged the refusal by University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center to allow his physician to perform a hysterectomy as part of his treatment for gender dysphoria. The hospital, while a subsidiary of the University of Maryland state system, adheres to Catholic religious doctrine. The court dismissed plaintiff’s Establishment Clause and Equal Protection Clause claims on 11th Amendment…

A clergy sex-abuse case with a new twist was filed this week in a Wisconsin federal district court.  As described by a press release from Nate’s Mission: This morning attorneys filed a federal civil complaint … against the Franciscans of the Blessed Virgin Mary, headquartered in Franklin, Wisconsin, and the Diocese of Jackson in the case of former Franciscan Brother Paul West, alleging discrimination and racial disparities in the treatment of Raphael Love, a Black…