From the federal case docket:QuoteORDER DENYING Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment; DENYING Defendants' Motion to Strike portions of the Deposition of Nancy Leathers and portions of the Affidavit of Deborah Danos; and GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART Defendants' 43 Motion for Summary Judgment. Defendant's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED as to Counts II, III, Count IX, and Counts XI-XIII; the motion is DENIED as to Counts I and Counts V-VIII. The Parties are DIRECTED to submit briefing, not to exceed 15 pages, on whether Plaintiff's claims are ripe no later than 10/21/2011. Signed by Judge Amy Totenberg on 9/30/2011. (acm) (Entered: 10/03/2011)
ORDER DENYING Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment; DENYING Defendants' Motion to Strike portions of the Deposition of Nancy Leathers and portions of the Affidavit of Deborah Danos; and GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART Defendants' 43 Motion for Summary Judgment. Defendant's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED as to Counts II, III, Count IX, and Counts XI-XIII; the motion is DENIED as to Counts I and Counts V-VIII. The Parties are DIRECTED to submit briefing, not to exceed 15 pages, on whether Plaintiff's claims are ripe no later than 10/21/2011. Signed by Judge Amy Totenberg on 9/30/2011. (acm) (Entered: 10/03/2011)
The court is tired of the bullshit. It will be interesting to see if any agreement can be made. But while waiting, some thoughts to ponder: do they have the money and membership to continue with this project?
I am curious whether the court's comment about an agreement on parking spaces that would accommodate their anticipated expansion is not a subtle slam on the fact that, like dinosaurs, they will soon be extinct.
The Church serves a state-wide congregation of 600 members, 100 of whom are currently active. It has a staff of 20 volunteer and paid employees.
It is undisputed that the property was purchased with the express purpose of facilitating the growth of the organization. Itwas clearly the expectation of both the Plaintiff and the City that the membership of the Church would grow beyond its current active enrollment of 100 parishioners. It is not clear how the Parking Studies related to that anticipated growth or to address the undisputed fact that, as an Ideal Org, Plaintiff expected to have 100 staff members on site at all times.
For example, because of our belief that the church of $cientology is an abusive cult, we tend to believe people like Marty Rathbun, Mike Rinder, Debbie Cook, and others when they speak out about their experiences. But if you watch the videos of Mike Rinder from his days as church spokesperson, his denials of the same type of behavior are very credible.
The point I am making is that they are all liars in some way, shape, or form. Which version do you want to believe?
One of my biggest complaints about this organization is that they begin the "dead agent" pack as soon a person walks through the door. Sea Org members provide a detailed history of every transgression they have ever committed (or thought about committing) and they are careful to get video of the person telling how wonderful the church is before leaving. By doing so, they create in their dissidents "witness incredibility" in anticipation of future litigation. This practice is in itself a form of "consciousness of guilt" on the part of the institution as they are beginning to find out.
The little Dutch boy (Miscavige) is learning that there are too many holes in the dikes for his fingers to plug.
Judges are only supposed to look at properly admitted evidence and the facts that have been stipulated to by the parties. They may also take judicial notice of other facts which covers a wide variety of matters-pending cases, laws of other jurisdictions, etc. Each judge has his or her own world view which affects how they process and filter this evidence.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012Court Says Now Scientology Church Can Pursue Discrimination In Zoning ClaimIn Church of Scientology of Georgia v. City of Sandy Springs, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19087 (ND GA, Feb. 10. 2012), a Georgia federal district court granted a motion for reconsideration of its earlier zoning decision (see prior posting). The earlier decision held that triable issues of fact remain on plaintiff's First Amendment claims and its RLUIPA claim that the city's action posed a substantial burden on its religious exercise, but dismissed its RLUIPA discrimination, equal terms and exclusion claims. In its new opinion, the court held that it now believes a question of fact exists as to whether Sandy Springs discriminated against the Church of Scientology on the basis of its religious denomination when, in granting conditional approval of its rezoning application, it refused to allow expansion of the church's existing building based on a lack of sufficient on-site parking. In an amended opinion, the court said: Based on the entirety of the evidence in the record as more clearly demonstrated by Plaintiff in its motion for reconsideration, in conjunction with new, unchallenged evidence provided in the briefing on ripeness that Plaintiff originally sought a parking variance but was informed by a member of the City's planning staff that no variance was needed because the Church met the City's minimum parking requirement, the Court finds that Plaintiff has now sufficiently demonstrated evidence from which a possible inference of discrimination could be made.
I have a general non-legal question about this case, because the more I think about what's going on here, the less I understand it. Most US orgs are struggling to get by, struggling to send money uplines on a weekly basis, per most insider accounts, and yet the Sandy Springs org has deep enough pockets to engage in fairly costly litigation. So I'm curious if anyone 'on the ground' there, so to speak, can offer their opinion as to why so much time, energy, and money has been invested into obtaining this particular variance. I can't think of a single instance where parking has been a problem for a Scientology org, ever; so I'm assuming that parking is only the stated reason. I acknowledge that Scientology often acts on postulated traffic--how else to explain Clearwater's massive and soon-to-remain-empty SuperPower Building? But this is just an org, so I'm real curious if anyone can offer an opinion as to why this org in particular needs to expand, and possibly where the money is coming from to make this all happen. It's not as if every org across the country is abusing RLUIPA to expand.
...in many cases, the key factor in whether or not an organization is classified as a church is the presence or absence of a congregation. In other words, is the organization's membership a coherent group of individuals or families that regularly join together (primarily in person rather than by television or radio) to accomplish religious purposes or shared beliefs?
Scientology goes to great lengths to cloak itself in recognizable religious trappings but that has everything to do with its sales pitch and very little to do with keeping the IRS at bay.
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Topic: RLUIPA Law Suit Filed by Church of Scientology of Georgia (Read 101207 times)