Court Upholds $355K Verdict for Pastor Maligned By Church Leaders
In a novel church employment case, an Oregon appeals court has ruled that a church can’t use the First Amendment as a defense in a defamation case if church officials used the pulpit to accuse its former pastor of being a thief.
The ruling reinstates a $355,000 jury verdict awarded to Tim Turba, who was fired as interim pastor of the Vernonia Foursquare Church in 2004. Church officials had accused Turba, who was never charged with a crime, of “misappropriation of church funds,” the Oregonian reports.
A trial judge in Multnomah County threw out the verdict, deciding that the court didn’t have jurisdiction because the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
But the Oregon Court of Appeals disagreed, saying that defamatory statements aren’t religious in nature and don’t qualify for free speech protection.
The church is expected to appeal to the state supreme court.
The Oregonian interviewed law professor Steven K. Green, who directs Willamette University’s Center for Religion, Law & Democracy. Green said that historically what happens inside a church community is protected, but that is changing.
The court’s decision, he said, puts Oregon “on the vanguard” in this murky constitutional area. “Traditionally, employment disputes internal to a church have been off-limits to courts because of the difficulty of determining what is theological,” he said.
