News

Church of Scientology Asks Supreme Court To Block Danny Masterson’s Rape Accusers From Suing It

The Church of Scientology is trying to prevent four women who accused actor and Scientology member Danny Masterson of rape from suing the church.

The women claim the organization harassed and stalked them to keep them quiet.

The petition, filed Tuesday by the church, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to help enforce the religious arbitration clause in its member contract by overturning a California appeals court ruling saying the accusers were no longer bound to the contract because they had left the church.

The arbitration clause in the church’s contract bans members from taking legal action against the organization.

The church says members must go through a church-led conflict-resolution process instead. A lower court agreed, but in January the Court of Appeal overturned that decision, stating the women have a First Amendment right to leave the faith.

“Individuals have a First Amendment right to leave a religion. We hold that once petitioners had terminated their affiliation with the Church, they were not bound to its dispute resolution procedures to resolve the claims at issue here, which are based on alleged tortious conduct occurring after their separation from the Church and do not implicate resolution of ecclesiastical issues,” the ruling read.

“In effect, Scientology suggests that one of the prices of joining its religion (or obtaining a single religious service) is eternal submission to a religious forum — a sub silentio waiver of petitioners’ constitutional right to extricate themselves from the faith. The Constitution forbids a price that high.”

Scientology is arguing the ruling amounts to religious discrimination and that it violates their First Amendment rights.

“The notion that the First Amendment empowers the state to regulate the covenant between a church and its congregation could not be more wrong or dangerous,” the church argued. “Religious organizations need this Court to remove any doubt that their contracts — including their agreements to arbitrate disputes before a religious forum — cannot be voided by a party’s professed change of mind.”

The plaintiffs filed suit in August 2019, alleging the church had harassed and intimidated them after they reported the rape allegations against Masterson to the Los Angeles Police Department. The women say the church followed them, hacked their email and security systems, killed their pets, ran them off the road, poisoned trees on their property and threatened to kill them.

Masterson has denied the rape allegations and is scheduled to face criminal trial this fall.

Like
Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry
Gabrielle Teiner

Share
Published by
Gabrielle Teiner

Recent Posts

Dr. Salvador Plasencia, Who Supplied Ketamine To Matthew Perry Before Overdose Death, To Plead Guilty, Faces 40 Years In Prison

Prosecutors reported that Perry had paid $55,000 per day for six to eight shots of…

2 mins ago

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Ordered To Pay $2.3M To Ex-Dominion Voting Systems Employee For Defamation

A federal jury in Colorado found that MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell defamed the former Dominion…

1 hour ago

In Israel For Gay Pride, Caitlyn Jenner Flees Warzone After Saying There’s ‘No Place I’d Rather Be’

Before her departure, Jenner posted on X, “What an incredible way it has been to…

13 hours ago

Cher’s Son, Elijah Blue Allman, Rushed To Hospital After ‘Acting Erratically,’ Drugs Found In His Home

In 1999, Cher described Elijah, saying, “he’s a really smart, really talented, really strange person…he…

14 hours ago

Rumer Willis Shares Father’s Day Post Amid Dad Bruce Willis’ Declining Health

Rumer’s mother Demi Moore later shared her daughter’s post on Instagram stories, accompanied by three…

16 hours ago