Suit Challenges State Civil Rights Agency Jurisdiction Over Small Religiously-Motivated Group

A press release yesterday from the Thomas More Society announced that it has filed a lawsuit in Indiana state court challenging the authority of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission (ICRC) over the Fishers Adolescent Catholic Enrichment Society (FACES), a group of nine families who home-school their children. FACES was created to provide social occasions at which home-schooled children can interact in a religious context with one another. Problems arose when one mother whose daughter suffered from a serious food allergy insisted that her child have a special diet at a FACES banquet. FACES leaders believed that a home-prepared meal would be better, and refused the mother's request. The mother then filed a civil rights charge claiming that the refusal to accommodate her daughter amounted to discrimination on the basis of disability. The new lawsuit charges that the ICRC's assertion of jurisdiction over this kind of small voluntary association formed for religious purposes violates members' rights to freely associate in exercising and expressing their religious beliefs, protected by the Indiana and U.S. constitutions.