Supreme Court Review Sought In Pastor's Defamation Claim Against Church

On Friday, a petition for certiorari (full text) to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed in Cooke v. Tubra.  In the case, an Oregon state appellate court held that jurisdiction over an interim pastor's defamation claim against his former church and two of its officers is not necessarily barred by the First Amendment. (See prior posting.) The Oregon Supreme Court denied review. The court below distinguished between statements made by a church that are necessarily religious in nature, and those that do not concern the religious beliefs and practices of the organization or are made for a non-religious purpose. [Thanks to Mark Chopko for the lead.]