Clergy Sexual Assault Provision Upheld Against Constitutional Challenge

In Smith v. Thaler, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125869 (ND TX, Sept. 7, 2011), a Texas federal magistrate judge rejected overbreadth, vagueness and Establishment Clause challenges to a provision (TX Penal Code Sec. 22.011(b)(10)) in the Texas sexual assault statute. The challenged section provides that a sexual assault is without the consent of the other person if "the actor is a clergyman who causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's professional character as spiritual adviser." A federal district judge subsequently accepted the magistrate's findings denying habeas corpus relief, and also denied a certificate of appealability. (2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121962, Oct. 20, 2011).