We're going to leave this story up as our lead for the morning crew to see, and then post a new story later in the morning.

Wow, what a decision.

We're going to leave this story up as our lead for the morning crew to see, and then post a new story later in the morning.

Oh F yes by all means. Please do leave this story up for the morning crew to celebrate.

As the story will be up all night, midrats will be served in the Bunker cafeteria which is next to the SP Hall.

https://fastly.4sqi.net/img...

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

(geez I had to edit my post, I didn't understand the three panel judges' decision, Tony explained it exceptionally.)

I more carefully re-read Tony's exceptional update above, and this is the highlight, I think:

"....if the Church or a Church member committed any intentional or negligent tort against a former member of the Church, that former member would be bound by Scientology dispute resolution procedures regardless of the fact that the member had left the Church years, even decades, before the tort. 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 silencio waiver of petitioners’ constitutional right to extricate themselves from the faith. The Constitution forbids a price that high....."

Incredible.

For sure Scientology lawyers will have some billing hours of work ahead of them.

Tony, please take the morning off! You can read and respond to comments on this story. And give yourself a break for a day!

(I re-re-read Tony's exceptional article, and had to re-edit my misunderstanding of things.)

This is the key quote from the judge:

",,,if the Church or a Church member committed any intentional or negligent tort against a former member of the Church, that former member would be bound by Scientology dispute resolution procedures regardless of the fact that the member had left the Church years, even decades, before the tort. 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 silencio waiver of petitioners’ constitutional right to extricate themselves from the faith. The Constitution forbids a price that high....."

Billing hours for sure by the Scientologists' lawyers will be way up.

And probably honing the Scientology release documents and other legal docs the Scientologsits have to sign before doing staff, before doing the quackery pseudo-therapy/exorcism, what still a load of crap that pre-loads into doing Scientology or being on their staffs. Enough to never join and never do their crap quackery.

It's going to now be picked away at, and gives Scientology hired top lawyers some grounds for making their counter arguments, and filling in where they can still perfect these Scientology "legal" agreements and "releases" they spend loads of lawyer hours perfecting for Scientology.

Yes, I can see Captain Miscavige instructing his team of lawyers to close this loophole by updating the agreements/contracts and requiring the adherents to sign these new documents. After all, that's what all "religions" do.

No, that's not what religions do.

Yea, those Scientology lawyer written Scientology staff/quackery-services legal agreements ought to be warning signs to quit Scientology right then and there.

'Billing hours will be up for the lawyers on Scientology's side'

This seems to be DM one stat that is 47Xing

Why don’t you pend the second story and take the day off to celebrate - put streamers on your handlebars and go for a bike ride

Yes Tony, throw some balls for the Shar Peis!

Please leave it up and Bunkerittes... Share this story anywhere you can! ❤️🤟🌹⛩️
Thank every person who has helped

expose the abuses of this insinsideous
Cult! 💜

That’s ok, it was a good day, Tony.

Leave it up all day!
Even though it is bs that there is a legitimate thing as "arbitration" within this cult, this is really good news. At least someone finally acknowledges that one should have the First Amendment right to LEAVE a religion and not be subject to it after that.

"Leave it up all day!"

Yes! Finally something to celebrate after all this time. Even if it is just the start of a long road.

It is a significant decision. People have a right to leave a religion. Such a simple idea. No more stalking, harassment, threats, theft, vandalism, or slander, under the guise of religious practice, with no recourse for the victims or consequence for the church. (I wonder if the refusal to remove people from mailing lists fits into low level harassment. )

Just fantastic

Great news. This could potentially be a game changer for the cherchs future abuses.

A tremendous and important legal ruling. Great work by Marci Hamilton.

I saw the key legal failure by Scientology occur when Justice Moor asked Scientology’s attorney William Forman a truly interesting and pointed question:

Justice Moor: What happens if I went into Scientology in 1980 to check it out and then left after two weeks? If I had signed the contract and was hit by a truck owned by Scientology 20 years later, would I still be bound to the contract?

Attorney Forman: That would be Scientology’s position, yes.

IMO, William Forman lost the case when Justice Moor walked him off a cliff with this subtle but crucial question. Forman lost when he asserted that Scientology's contract extends over the entire future lifetime of everyone who ever did Scientology when it comes to any matter relating to Scientology.

I saw Forman's argument as a blatant attempt by Scientology to protect its malicious Fair Game practices after a person has left Scientology. Scientology wants to assert that its membership services contract is irrevocable and protects it from lawsuits for the lifetime of anyone who ever signed it. Scientology wants its illegal conduct to be made legal in the courts and that did not happen today.

Scientology argued that its contract even covers seemingly unrelated matters. So, yes, if you get hit by a truck owned by Scientology 20 years after you decided to leave, Scientology attorney Forman says the Church will compel you into arbitration over its truck hitting you. It is Scientology’s position that you would have no right to sue the Church in a court of law for your suffering, injuries, and medical costs caused by its truck hitting you. Scientology wants to assert its religious authority over a non-member in perpetuity.

The court today wrote:

The issue properly phrased is: after petitioners have left the faith, can Scientology still require that all of Scientology’s future conduct with respect to petitioners – including torts of whatever kind – be governed by Scientology law, with disputes to be resolved solely in Scientology tribunals by Scientology members? We conclude it cannot.

This echoes the argument made in the 1984 case captioned Guinn v. Church of Christ of Collinsville, which was ultimately decided by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. In that case, the Church of Christ of Collinsville argued that you could never resign from their church and that its harassment, emotional distress, and invasion of privacy of Marian Guinn after she resigned from the Church was protected and was constitutional. My blog post on this key case: https://scientologymoneypro...

*****
Marian Guinn filed suit against the church for invasion of privacy and emotional distress. The Church of Christ argued in court that because its rules do not permit its members to ever resign or depart from the Church, the Church’s rules applied to Guinn even after she resigned. (A jury eventually awarded her $390,000.)

The Church of Christ, like the Church of Scientology, would like its members to think of it as the Hotel California: You can check out any time you want but you can never leave. However, this is simply not correct. The Guinn court offered an instructional and highly valuable ruling:

Just as freedom to worship is protected by the First Amendment, so also is the liberty to recede from one’s religious allegiance. In Torcaso v. Watkins the Court reaffirmed that neither a state nor the federal government can force or influence a person to go or to remain away from church against one’s will or to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. The First Amendment clearly safeguards the freedom to worship as well as the freedom not to worship.

The court record in Guinn is specific on the point of withdrawing consent:

The Elders had never been confronted with a member who chose to withdraw from the church. Because disciplinary proceedings against Parishioner had already commenced when she withdrew her membership, the Elders concluded their actions could not be hindered by her withdrawal and would be protected by the First Amendment. Parishioner relies on her September 24, 1981 handwritten letter to the Elders in which she unequivocally stated that she withdrew her membership and terminated her consent to being treated as a member of the Church of Christ communion. By common-law standards we find her communication was an effective withdrawal of her membership and of her consent to religious discipline.

Consent is the crux of the matter in terms of religion in America. Once an individual consents to be governed by a church’s rules, that individual is fully subject to the rules and the punishments, however harsh they may be, for breaking those rules.

Once an individual resigns from their church and withdraws their consent to be governed by church rules, however, the church no longer has any rights to punish them. As the Church Discipline blog wrote of the Guinn matter:

This bears repeating. Once a withdraw has occurred the First Amendment protections don’t belong to the church, rather they belong to the individual. All religious activity in the United States is consensual, a person who publicly claims not to be a member of a church is legally not a member of that church and church discipline cannot continue without consent. A church attempting to discipline a person that has withdrawn their consent and resigned can be found to be engaging in a form of harassment.

Consent is the crux of the matter in terms of religion in America. Once an individual consents to be governed by a church’s rules, that individual is fully subject to the rules and the punishments, however harsh they may be, for breaking those rules.

This is how the Organization gets away with the RPF's RPF and sec checking and everything else it does to those in its grasp.

It's also important to note that Guinn prepared a handwritten letter to the Elders in which she unequivocally stated that she withdrew her membership and terminated her consent to being treated as a member of the Church. Anyone leaving the scientology Organization should do the same. I'd send it to every org and every scientology entity I'd ever been involved in or exposed to.

This cannot be overemphasized: Any Scientologist who wishes to resign from the Church in order to escape its oppression and abuse is free to do so. A Scientologist should send the Church of Scientology International (CSI) and the IAS a written statement of resignation that includes a specific withdrawal of one’s consent to be governed by Scientology’s ecclesiastical rules.

The point here is that anyone desiring to resign from a church and withdraw their consent to be governed by the rules of that church must make a positive act. This means writing a letter to appropriate church terminals specifically stating one’s resignation and withdrawal of consent.

In the case of the Church of Scientology one needs to resign from the IAS, the Church of Scientology International; RTC; and all Orgs where one has signed membership services contracts and had services; the positive act should be as broad and sweeping as possible.

Get a lawyer to write your letter or review it. The key thing is to make a sharp and unequivocal resignation.

Yes. When I left I tried to cover all these bases as best I could. I could not afford a lawyer.

One thing I did do is that I sent my resignation documents (doubt formula write-up and demand for refund/repayment) to the legal registered agents for service of the california corporations of CSI, RTC, IAS and anyone else I could think of. In my case they were the long-time agents located in North Hollywood. I don't know if those are still the ones.

P.S.: Lynn Farny, when I spoke to him on the phone because he called me offering me the money I had on account in exchange for some binding contract, was very surprised that I had informed the registered agents by Registered Mail. And that they had accepted that mail.

P.P.S.: The California Secretary of State has a business search website:

https://businesssearch.sos....

Astute moves on your part Michael.

Michael, I remember how your Doubt Formula blew up the Scientology part of the internet when you first published it online in April 2003: http://www.xenu-directory.n...

No one had ever done that before to the Cult. OSA was enraged by this impudent SP. How dare he write and publish a doubt formula! This could lead to more SP's online just freely criticizing and nattering about Scientology!

I would love to hear first hand accounts about how it was received. I've never gotten much personal feedback as to what difference it made to anyone in particular (or I have forgotten it), how it might have affected anyone's decision to leave the cult. That maybe seems a little vain, but I would like to know it made a difference.

Michael, your published Doubt Formula reverberated across the internet for many years and was widely read. Arnie Lerma deemed it very important and published it at Lermanet: https://lermanet.org/exit/t...

You also wrote a perfectly titled 2012 piece: Scientology is evil and scientologists are dangerous.http://scientologybollocksa...

No doubts there concerning what your article is about.

Thanks so much Mr. Swift. I remember Arnie calling me up and asking me if he could reprint it and send it to a mailing list he had obtained. A mailing list of all the WISE members. Thousands of people.

And he did. So beyond the 16 hard copies that I had sent to my friends, nearly every WISE member in Los Angeles, and perhaps the Planet, got a copy too.

I have told the funny story of the Executive Director of the Portland Org calling me up to complain that she had a stack of my doubt formula and demand for refund documents on her desk. She implied that she was going to take some sort of legal action against me for sending it out.

I asked her: Did you read the copyright notice? The one on the last page? The one where I give permission for anyone to share it or reprint it and send it to anyone else as long as it is complete and unaltered?

"I didn't mail it out." "Why are you calling me?"

....

Silence...

End of phone call.

The letter is dynamite and your handling of its dissemination was brilliant.

Edited:

This is the first time I read the letter. It is so thoughtful, clear and comprehensive that I am sure it rocked the world of a lot of scientologists at the time (and Jeffrey confirms).

I think what makes it really powerful, apart from the well-researched arguments which incorporate scientology practices, is that your honesty and ethics shine through.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your taking the time to read it. Not easy because of all the terminology.

Sort of scary that I understand a lot of the terminology:)

Boom!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽😄

It made a difference to me. I vividly remember reading it at the time, when such things were not published or openly talked about and fear of church retribution was intense. I was still, shall we say, in my transitional phase of leaving and it made a great impact. After all the fake doubt formulas I had to do, seeing someone actually really look at the “other side” and choose it rocked my world! Thank you for taking that courageous and bold stand. It helped push me out the door but good.

I'm so glad to hear from you that it helped you in your journey "out."
And grateful for your sincere thanks.

>your published Doubt Formula reverberated across the internet for many years and was widely read
J. Swift is right. You've had a massive impact.

Thank you so much! The monolithic size of the con game sometimes makes it hard to tell.

And the secrecy.

Not to sure about it being "Astute." I was pretty much shotgunning any conceivable way to protect myself and make sure that MANY people knew it if they went after me in a big way.

Either way, you made a smart move.

Many people have been known to make declarations that they want to leave the church when they are assigned to the RPF, or the RPF’s RPF. They are of course ignored by the Cherch and are then forced by duress into doing the RPFs and only freed once they get broken and agree to change their minds. The wording in the courts today could give new leverage to even these situations.

Yes!

Writing a letter is a simple positive act and can save your ass/life.

And it need only be one sentence long...

This decision has made me fully realize the importance of filing a resignation letter with all the branches of the cherch. Since I was not very active in all my years I thought it would not matter. I don't recall signing any contracts like this, but maybe I did. Getting on this right away.

OMG! I said this a long time ago!!! Keep spreading the word. :)

A church attempting to discipline a person that has withdrawn their consent and resigned can be found to be engaging in a form of harassment.

Amen!! ;-)

So much for the constitution shielding the behaviour of "black heart" organisations.

I wonder where this leaves 'freeloader debt'...

You contracted to accept free 'services' and pay for them in full if you exercised your right to leave Scientology... but Scientology maintains that those services are religious in nature. That's something they even made you accept in the contract itself.

So, if you leave, doesn't that make a demand for payment an act of harrassment by the CofS?.

The question is unlikely to come to court - there's no advantage to that when you can just ignore demands for payment without consequences, and Scientology has never dared to try to enforce a freeloader debt. It's more valuable as a means to intimidate people who don't know it isn't enforceable.

However... what about all the people who made some effort to pay off a freeloader debt after they left Scientology thinking it was an enforceable secular contract - could they demand their money back in court?

This decision has a lot of implications which lawyers employed by Scientology are probably even now working out.

The "freeloader debt" is really only paid if you are trying to get onto scientology services as a paying public person, after having left a staff contract as an employee of the "church" without completing the term of the contract and while a staff member having received scientology services for "free." As far as I know, they cannot legally come after you for those charges. They can only prevent you from getting any "services" if you haven't paid the freeloader debt.

No free religious discipline, either. They won't set your house on fire, poison your dog, go through the garbage, solicit anal sex for you, or leave human waste in the driveway unless you'e all paid up.

And if you are seeking services, that makes you a ScIentologist in law, OK.

However, if you are not in good standing until you have paid this 'debt', surely you are not a ScIentologist and can consequently seek a refund for whatever money you gave them during that period :-)

If you leave staff before completing your 'contract' you are not in good standing, but you are still considered a scientologist, bound by the general rules of being one. Until the 'church' declares you as suppressive and "expels" you are still considered to be one of them.

You can seek a refund, but unless you have some legal 'leverage' or knowledge of illegal acts you can trade your silence on for refund, you are out of luck without lawyers and courts and that ever sticky wicket "the first amendment."

However, with this decision your contract ends when you declare you are no longer a ScIentologist.

If they pressure you to pay your bill after that, the contract is no longer valid and it's extortion.