CHARLESTON (WV)
Gazette Mail
Nov. 7, 2019
By Jake Zuckerman
A judge asked the West Virginia Supreme Court on Wednesday to consider the viability of Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s lawsuit alleging that the Wheeling Charleston-Diocese knowingly hired employees at its camp and schools who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing children.
Wood County Circuit Judge J.D. Beane ruled against Morrisey, but he put the case on hold and asked the high court to weigh in on whether the lawsuit is even viable under the state’s consumer protection laws.
He specifically sent up two questions:
Does the Consumer Credit and Protection Act, as it pertains to unfair methods of competition and or deceptive practices, apply to religious institutions?
Would applying the law as Morrisey requested be “an excessive entanglement of Church and State,” which is prohibited by the state and federal constitutions?
Beane ruled against Morrisey on both counts. He said, if the law is “to remain vigilant in protecting religious freedom and in protecting religious institutions from substantial government intrusion,” it must refrain from mingling between church and state.
“A panoramic view of the entire relationship between Church and State arising from application of the Consumer Credit and Protection Act to religious schools reveals, not dimly but clearly, an excessive entanglement of government and religion which is prohibited under federal and state constitutions,” he wrote in a 40-page ruling.
However, Beane put the case on hold and sent the issue to the Supreme Court, which would weigh in on those two questions.
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