SCOTX Asked to Revive Suit Against Gateway Church, Morris, Elders

The Texas Supreme Court has been asked to revive a defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church, its former pastor Robert Morris and its elders after lawyers for the plaintiff argued in a petition filed this week that a lower court had impermissibly expanded the scope of the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine in determining the suit should end.  

Last month, the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas concluded that the doctrine — which, in essence, bars civil courts from deciding cases that call into question a church’s doctrine, internal decisions and governance — applied to completely end Cindy Clemishire’s claims against Gateway Church and its elders.