Subpoena Against Archdiocese Upheld Against Constitutional Attack

In a long opinion issued yesterday in Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, a California court of appeals upheld a grand jury subpoena directed to the Archdiocese for numerous documents needed in the grand jury's deliberations over whether to indict two priests for sexually molesting children while they worked for the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese raised defenses under the free exercise clauses of the US and California constitutions, under the establishment clause of the US Constitution, various claims of privilege and other defenses. The court found that only one of the numerous documents was protected from discovery by the grand jury. Among other holdings, the court found that the rule in Employment Division v. Smith applies to the federal free exercise challenge to the production of documents.