In a major legal victory Wednesday for leaders of Gateway Church, a federal judge in Sherman dismissed a lawsuit brought by former members of the church who claim its leaders misused hundreds of thousands of dollars of their tithes.
U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant ruled that recent appellate decisions expanding legal protections for religious autonomy in church self-governance required him to dismiss the lawsuit against North Dallas’ Gateway Church and its former pastor, Robert Morris.
The case is one of several ongoing litigation matters facing the megachurch and its former pastor after Morris was accused of having an illegal sexual relationship with a minor many years ago.
Cindy Clemishire, who alleged that Morris sexually abused her when she was a teenager, sued Morris and Gateway Church in 2025 on allegations of defamation, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and unjust enrichment. The case is still pending.
In October 2025, Morris pleaded guilty to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. He was sentenced to six months in jail and was released on March 31.
In its lawsuit, the former church members claim that Gateway Church leaders promised that “15% of all tithe dollars would be distributed to global missions and Jewish ministry partners.” Those commitments, the plaintiffs argue, induced them to give generously to these efforts. In addition, the church members state that Morris committed to refunding any tithe money if they were dissatisfied.
When the church members discovered the money had instead gone to “secret organizations,” they sued, claiming breach of contract, fraud and racketeering. The damages, according to lawyers, would have been in the millions of dollars.
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Judge Mazzant, citing an October 2025 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, said the former church members’ lawsuit must be dismissed under the appellate court’s new “ecclesiastical abstention doctrine,” which protects religious organizations from litigation when it comes to matters of faith and internal church functions.
“Although the court agrees with plaintiffs that … their claims seemingly address Defendants’ non-religious conduct, this conduct centers around the allocation of tithing dollars to Gateway’s ‘many charitable purposes.’ As such, while both parties acknowledge plaintiffs’ claims are grounded in traditional civil law, resolving the claims would require the court to examine the management of Gateway’s donated funds, which will necessarily implicate questions of faith, scripture, and religious doctrine,” Judge Mazzant wrote in his 17-page opinion.
“In other words, determining whether Gateway diverted money from ‘Global Missions and Jewish ministry partners’ and ‘local, national, and international outreach efforts,’ to unspecified ‘secret organizations’ or other charitable purposes, would require the court to ‘determine whether a particular church’s policies were doctrinally correct’ or ‘accorded with the congregation’s beliefs,’” the judge wrote.
Judge Mazzant wrote that his decision might have been different if the church members had alleged that Morris or other Gateway leaders “pocketed their tithe dollars for personal gain.” But they did not.
The Fifth Circuit, in McRaney v. North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, ruled that “the ‘general principle of church autonomy’ guarantees to religious institutions ‘independence in matters of faith and doctrine and in closely linked matters of internal government.’”
The Fifth Circuit stated that McRaney “does not grant ‘religious institutions … a general immunity from secular laws” but that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine’s “purpose includes safeguarding religious institutions’ autonomy with respect to internal management decisions that are essential to the institution’s central mission.”
Ron Breaux, a partner at Haynes Boone who represents the church, in a statement issued Wednesday, said the plaintiffs “sought to second-guess Gateway’s beliefs and decisions on the fundamental religious question of tithing.”
“The First Amendment prohibits such an assault on Gateway’s religious autonomy and freedom,” Breaux said. “The District Court rightly recognized that resolving the plaintiffs’ claims would require the court to conduct an inquiry into matters that are essential to Gateway’s central mission, and it properly dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims.”
In a separate statement issued through his lawyer, Morris said he was pleased with the court’s decision.
“I want to be absolutely clear that during my 24 years as senior pastor at Gateway Church, tithe monies were faithfully and properly stewarded and not one dollar was misdirected,” Morris said.
Morris and Gateway are also involved in separate litigation in Tarrant County in which the former pastor claims he is owed additional compensation from his time as pastor.
Gateway Church is represented by Breaux, Allen Ryan Paulsen, Christopher Ryan Knight and Brad Foster of Haynes Boone.
Morris is represented by William Bryan Mateja, Elisha Jonathan Kobre and Jason Christopher Hoggan of Sheppard Mullin; Aaron Zachary Tobin, Blake Evan Mattingly and Addison Gage Taylor of Condon Tobin.
The plaintiffs are represented by Caroline C. Harrison of Dowell Pham Harrison; Lance L. Livingston and Timothy Micah Dortch of the Dortch Lindstrom Livingston Law Group; and Melissa Richards Smith of Gillam & Smith.
The case between the church members and Gateway is Katherine Leach v. Gateway Church, EDTX, No. 4:24-cv00885.
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