FLDS Member Sues For Religious Discrimination

Friday's Salt Lake Tribune , as well as Fox 13 News, report on the first-ever civil rights action by a member of the FLDS Church, filed Friday in Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court. The complaint (full text) in Barlow v. Goddard, (AZ Super. Ct., filed 9/18/2009) alleges that the decertification of former police officer Preston Barlow by the Arizona Police Officer Standards and Training Board violated various federal and state constitutional and statutory provisions. Barlow claims that he was misled about the purpose of an investigation during which he refused to answer a number of questions about his FLDS faith. In fact the investigation was designed to look into whether Barlow and other FLDS officers had failed to protect property belonging to the United Effort Plan Tust which holds property of FLDS members (and which is now being reorganized under court supervision). Barlow claims that the investigation and his decertification placed a burden on his free exercise of religion, imposed a religious test for state employment, and were carried out under unconstitutionally broad and vague standards.