The Headleys vs Scientology Appeal 2012

[Sponge]

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view_subpage.php?pk_id=0000008675
Listen to recording for case: Claire Headley v. Church of Scientology Internat, et al., No. 10-56266

Download: 10-56266.wma (http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/media/2012/02/09/10-56266.wma)
Case Name: Claire Headley v. Church of Scientology Internat, et al.
Case Number: 10-56266
Case Panel: NELSON, O'SCANNLAIN, SMITH
Hearing Location: Pasadena, CA
Hearing Date: 02/09/2012
Supplement(s): N/A

[Sponge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtd75VPBsQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtd75VPBsQ
Thanks to Ackerland for doing the video upload for me.

[Sponge]

Jonny Jacobsen's analysis of the oral arguments...........

Headleys : arguments on appeal I
A church cannot be exempt from sanctions for human trafficking and forced labor,
a lawyer for two former Scientologists told a U.S. appeal court.
by Jonny Jacobsen. Infinite Complaceny blog. Friday, 10 February 2012
http://infinitecomplacency.blogspot.com/2012/02/headleys-arguments-on-appeal-i.html


Attorneys for Scientology and two former members of Scientology’s elite Sea Org cadre, went head to head in a California appeal court Thursday.

Marc and Claire Headley, who worked at a high-security compound near Hemet, in California, known as Gold Base, argue they were subjected to forced labour.

Marc Headley says he suffered several physical assaults from the movement’s leader, David Miscavige, who was based at the same compound.

Claire Headley says she was forced to have two abortions and witnessed repeated physical assaults on fellow workers.

Both were appealing August 2010 District Court rulings by Judge Dale Fischer dismissing their cases.

Judge Fischer had ruled that the principle of ministerial exception, derived from First Amendment constitutional rights guaranteeing freedom of religion, ruled out any consideration of the allegations.

The hearing was confined to 30 minutes, with time strictly rationed on both sides.

Kathryn Saldana of the Metzger Law Group, opened pleading for the Headleys before judges Dorothy Wright Nelson, Diarmuid Fionntain O`Scannlain and N. Randy Smith.

[...continues in article link...]

[Ada Fucking Lovelace]

Nice info from Jonny.

[peterstorm]

Hope this ends well.

[Mahoy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtd75VPBsQ
That's sick. The judges were basically saying that they're leaning towards the idea that any religion can do whatever the hell they want to and no one is allowed to get any legal "relief" for any injustices done to them by their religion. In other words, don't ever join any religion.

[Sponge]

Part 2 of Jonny Jacobsen's analysis of the oral arguments.

Headleys : arguments on appeal II
http://infinitecomplacency.blogspot.com/2012/02/headleys-on-appeal-ii.html?utm_source=BP_recent

Scientology’s attorney argued that the Headleys could
not argue psychological and social coercion based on
their upbringing in the Church: that inevitably ran up
against First Amendment issues.

[Ada Fucking Lovelace]

Judge Wright Nelson started Eric Lieberman off by putting it to him that there were scenarios in which ministerial exception would not apply.

“How do we distinguish this case?” she asked.

The first case she raised was the one involving Devendra Shukla, a Hindu priest awarded $2.3 compensation in December 2010 by a New York court: he had been forced into working as a virtual indentured servant for seven years in a Hindu temple in New York.[i]

...

Judge Wright Nelson put another case to him; Bollard v. California Province of the Society of Jesus, a judgment from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that had held that ministerial exception did not bar a case of sexual harassment.[ii]

...

Another of the judges intervened. He was interested that Scientology was not saying ministerial exception would prohibit a claim to the extent that it relied on physical abuse: did he agree with that?

“If that were the only claim in the case,” said Lieberman.

“If the plaintiff was claiming ‘I was physically forced, seized, brought to work chain-gang style and forced to work; and there were no other factors that caused me to do that work; and I wanted to get out of there’ – and there were none of these psychological and social factors complicating the question, then we think yes, that would not be protected by ministerial exception.”





sounds like the judges are asking some very sensible questions here.



from the Scientology side:




also that if they chose to just precipitously leave their Sea Org position and break their vows without following procedure set forth in Church scripture for doing so then they might be excommunicated and lose contact with their friends and family – something that as we show is not unique to the Scientology religion by any means.”



... which is interesting because they're no longer denying that disconnection exists.

Thanks again to Jonny for great coverage as always.

He makes a good point with




Headley’s team did not appear to be disputing that their clients could be considered ministers for the purposes of this case: that certainly isn’t obvious to me and it seems like a major concession.

[Sponge]

Courthouse News Service....
Scientology Forced Labor Claims Hit the 9th Circ.
By MATT REYNOLDS 13th Feb 2012
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/13/43831.htm

[Sponge]

tikk, on wwp (https://whyweprotest.net/community/threads/headley-v-scientology-appeal-2012.99923/#post-2055199), posted up his links to the legal briefs....

Claire opening brief [3/10/11]: http://db.tt/k2AcG7ou
Marc opening brief [3/10/11]: http://db.tt/WRZ2VJFd
Scientology answering brief [7/18/11]: http://db.tt/mLMS0jV2
Appellant's reply brief [8/31/11]: http://db.tt/0REYiwSj

[Sponge]

Scientology Forced Labor Claims Hit the 9th Circuit
ReligionNewsBlog • Tuesday February 14, 2012
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/26543/scientology-forced-labor-claims-hit-the-9th-circuit

[triumph]

The Headleys Get some Press
The Daily
Scientology ‘servitude’
Ex-church members’ claims of forced abortions, hard labor rest on appeal
By Andrew Strickler Wednesday, February 15, 2012
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/02/15/021512-news-scientology-suit-1-2/

[pocks]

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/02/15/021512-news-scientology-suit-1-2/

"In a ruling last week with potential ramifications for the case, the Supreme Court for the first time recognized the “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination laws, saying religious groups should be able to hire and fire without government interference."

Here some information on the nature of scientology ministers:

"Actually, the Scientology crime syndicate adopted the notion of pretending to be a religion for tax evasion purposes. The latest efforts to try to pretend the organization has "ministers" is simply more of the usual public relations efforts to try to gain some kind of respect outside of the Scientology organization.

There's really nothing new here in ths organization's claims. It's probably only interesting to note that becoming a fake "minister" in the crime syndicate consists of purchasing a "course" which takes one week and consists of reading some of L. Ron Hubbard's insane rants and perhaps listening to some equally insane Hubbard rants on tape. That's it. That's all it takes in this criminal organization.

And probably of further interest is the fact that becoming a fake "minister" in Scientology might be an attempt to try to avoid prosecution for criminal activities. Reverend Reed Slatkin, for instance, rooked and swindled his way through something like half a billion dollars and is still expected to be indicted on endless counts of various frauds. And of course Reverend Heber Jentzsch was indicted and skipped out out of Spain to hide out on the lam here in the United States. Claiming religious persecution is very common within Scientology when ringleaders are caught, arrested, indicted, sent to trial, and imprisoned. That's likely another reason why Scientology came up with their fake "ministers" scam. "

http://www.cosvm.org/minister.htm

[triumph]

Religion and American Law Blog (Bucknell University and Georgia State)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
http://religionandamericanlaw.blogspot.com/2012/02/headley-v-church-of-scientology.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtd75VPBsQ&feature=player_embedded

In an article posted on Courthouse News Service, the details of the Headley v. Church of Scientologycase are discussed, bringing up serious issues regarding the government’s role in regulating a religious organization’s practices. Husband and wife Claire and Marc Headley are bringing two separate cases against the Church of Scientology for forced labor, a case that if won could mean a rejection of the ministerial exception established in the First Amendment.

The Headleys claim that they were members of the Church of Scientology’s Sea Org for nearly 15 years, during which time they were prohibited from having children and were forced into having two abortions. Claire Headley claimed that individuals who left the church were threatened, coerced to return, and deprived of food and water in addition to other punishments. Marc Headley claims to have experienced physical abuse from other ministers at the church and that the church threatened he would not be able to leave the church without first going through a “routing out” process in which he would perform labor without pay.
The Headleys first attempted to sue the Church of Scientology in 2010 based on the terms of Trafficking Victims Act which “prohibits…obtaining the labor or services of a person by means of force, threats of force, physical restraints, or threats of physical restraint to that person or another person” (US Dept. of Justice). Their attempt was unsuccessful, deemed by the courts to fall under the ministerial exemption provided by the First Amendment. Thus, the Headleys, as ministers in a religious organization were incapable of filing a civil rights case against their employer. Now, the Headleys are appealing that decision.

Thus, it would seem that in the Headley’s case the government should step in to prevent the subversive actions of the church. Laws meant to protect the freedom of a religious organization to hire upon their own discernment should not interfere with the ability of individuals to file a civil liberty case against his/her employer. Religious freedom should not come at the price of an individual’s first amendment protection under the law.

[JustMe]

The Headleys Get some Press
The Daily
Scientology ‘servitude’
Ex-church members’ claims of forced abortions, hard labor rest on appeal
By Andrew Strickler Wednesday, February 15, 2012
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/02/15/021512-news-scientology-suit-1-2/

What an adorable picture of the Headly family. Contrast that picture showing two lovely little boys they had after escaping staff with the story of forced abortions when in.

This is part of the real story of Scientology and is what needs to get out to the public broadly.

[JustMe]

Scientology Forced Labor Claims Hit the 9th Circuit
ReligionNewsBlog • Tuesday February 14, 2012
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/26543/scientology-forced-labor-claims-hit-the-9th-circuit

This is already WIN. And it will be EPIC WIN, no matter what happens with the case, to the extent this story gets out to the public causing rage against the horrors of Scamintology.

[Random guy]

Does anyone have any idea when we can expect a ruling on this?

[Tangerine]

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/02/15/021512-news-scientology-suit-1-2/

"In a ruling last week with potential ramifications for the case, the Supreme Court for the first time recognized the “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination laws, saying religious groups should be able to hire and fire without government interference."

Here some information on the nature of scientology ministers:

"Actually, the Scientology crime syndicate adopted the notion of pretending to be a religion for tax evasion purposes. The latest efforts to try to pretend the organization has "ministers" is simply more of the usual public relations efforts to try to gain some kind of respect outside of the Scientology organization.

There's really nothing new here in ths organization's claims. It's probably only interesting to note that becoming a fake "minister" in the crime syndicate consists of purchasing a "course" which takes one week and consists of reading some of L. Ron Hubbard's insane rants and perhaps listening to some equally insane Hubbard rants on tape. That's it. That's all it takes in this criminal organization.

And probably of further interest is the fact that becoming a fake "minister" in Scientology might be an attempt to try to avoid prosecution for criminal activities. Reverend Reed Slatkin, for instance, rooked and swindled his way through something like half a billion dollars and is still expected to be indicted on endless counts of various frauds. And of course Reverend Heber Jentzsch was indicted and skipped out out of Spain to hide out on the lam here in the United States. Claiming religious persecution is very common within Scientology when ringleaders are caught, arrested, indicted, sent to trial, and imprisoned. That's likely another reason why Scientology came up with their fake "ministers" scam. "

http://www.cosvm.org/minister.htm

Even easier to be a Volunteer Minister.

Just read some nonsense at the site, and congratulations, you have the title of Volunteer Minister.