After being accused of rape by several women several years ago, That show from the 70s Former student Danny Masterson is now preparing for trial. As Masterson’s case evolves, the Church of Scientology is also engaged in a legal battle over his situation. The actor’s four accusers are suing the organization for launching a “vicious harassment campaign against them” after making charges against Masterson, a prominent Scientologist. Now, in hopes of preventing the case from moving forward, the church has adopted a legal tactic, which has already been tried twice.
The Church of Scientology filed a petition with the US Supreme Court last week, demanding that the court enforce religious arbitration that would prevent the four women from suing, according to Term . The church had previously tried this same legal method of defeating him in both a California appeals court and the state Supreme Court. The CoS argues that the appeals court’s ruling should be overturned because their First Amendment rights have been violated:
The defendants, as a condition for the plaintiffs’ membership of the Church, have repeatedly and expressly consented to religious arbitration of any disputes between them and the plaintiffs, regardless of when such disputes arose. The agreement to submit disputes to religious arbitration is not abnormal. US courts have long recognized the right of religious institutions to use dispute resolution procedures derived and guided by their core beliefs and scriptures. Secular courts have placed agreements to submit disputes to religious arbitration on an equal footing with agreements that require secular arbitration and have rejected calls to discriminate against religious arbitration just because it is religious.
The petition also claims that with its ruling, the California Second Court of Appeals sought to “arm the First Amendment against religious freedom.” According to the Church, the First Amendment “requires limitations applicable only to religious and non-secular arbitration agreements”.
The California Court of Appeals ruled last January that the four accusers, former Scientologists, were under no such obligation. In fact, each of the plaintiffs has since left the church. The band is suing the church (and Danny Masterson) in 2019 and claimed to have suffered harassment and intimidation from the church after filing the rape charge against the comedy veteran. They accused the church of harassing and threatening them with death, among other things.
Danny Masterson has been investigated after being accused of alleged assaults in 2016 and 2017. The women said the alleged incidents occurred at the star’s home in 2001 and 2003. Masterson was licensed from Netflix the ranch in 2017 following accidents and in 2020, he was accused of raping several women . Nail the plaintiff, identified as Jen B., testified during a preliminary hearing in May 2021 and detailed a meeting with the actor, during which he allegedly assaulted and threatened with a gun. Masterson, 45, denied the allegations.
At the time of writing, the actor has a $ 3.3 million bail and is expected to go to trial this fall. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in life imprisonment. It remains to be seen how things will turn out in this situation, as is also the case with the latest movement of the Church of Scientology. It is currently unclear when SCOTUS could make a decision on this.
Source: Cinemablend
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