MN Court Rejects Establishment Clause Challenge To Clergy Sexual Conduct Law

Today's Winona (MN) Daily News reports that a Winona County District Court has rejected a facial Establishment Clause challenge to Minnesota's clergy sexual conduct statute. In a decision last year, the Minnesota Supreme Court divided evenly on whether the statute is facially invalid under the Establishment Clause. (See prior posting.) The Winona County case against Rev. Donald Dean Budd had been delayed pending the Supreme Court's decision. Now Winona County Judge Jeff Thompson ruled: "The defendant has not demonstrated that all or most applications of the clergy sexual conduct statute would foster excessive entanglement of government and religion." At issue was a provision in MN Stat Sec. 609.344 that prohibits sexual relations "during a period of time in which the complainant was meeting on an ongoing basis with the actor to seek or receive religious or spiritual advice, aid, or comfort in private."