The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily halted a lower court's dismissal of Cindy Clemishire's defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church, founder Robert Morris and other church leaders, pausing the case while it considers whether to take it up. The court granted Clemishire's unopposed emergency motion for a stay on Sept.
18 — one day after their attorneys filed a petition asking the court to review and overturn the Fifth Court of Appeals' dismissal of most of Clemishire's civil claims. The stay temporarily halts the Fifth Court of Appeals' dismissal order while the Supreme Court considers the mandamus petition. It does not decide the case or permanently restore the dismissed claims, and the court has ordered responses to the petition by Oct. 19.
The stay follows the Dallas-based Fifth Court of Appeals' decision last month to dismiss Clemishire's lawsuit, ruling that proceeding with the case would violate the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which prohibits civil courts from getting involved with matters of doctrine or church governance.
Appeals Court Justice Mike Lee found in his opinion that Dallas County District Judge Emily Tobolowsky "abused her discretion" when she denied Gateway Church's motion last November to dismiss the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds. In their 158-page petition for writ of mandamus, filed Thursday, attorneys for Clemishire — including Texas Judiciary Chairman Rep.
Jeff Leach — warned that allowing her lawsuit to be dismissed under the ecclesiastical-abstention doctrine could create an unprecedented and dangerous legal shield for religious institutions. "The First Amendment is one of the greatest protections ever written into law, and we should fiercely defend it," Leach, an attorney with Gray Reed, said at a press conference outside the court.
"While the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine represents an important protection of religious liberties, it has never equated to full blanket immunity — not in Texas, and