United Federation of Churches LLC v. Johnson et al

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United Federation of Churches LLC v. Johnson et al
Filing Date 4/3/2020
Original Jurisdiction US District Court for the Western District of Washington
Plaintiff United Federation of Churches LLC
Defendant David Alan Johnson, Nathan Sullivan, Leah Fishbaugh, Mickey Joshua Powell (formerly Mickey Meehan)
Intervenor N/A
State Washington
Case# 2:20-cv-00509
Original Result Dismissed
First Appeal Ongoing
Second Appeal N/A
Final Result N/A

United Federation of Churches LLC v. Johnson et al is an ongoing federal court case filed April 3, 2020, by the for-profit corporation United Federation of Churches LLC d/b/a "The Satanic Temple," against four former members of the religion The Satanic Temple who had previously been members of the religion's local chapter based in Seattle, WA.[1]

The defendants have characterized the case as an example of a SLAPP or "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation", an opinion shared by other legal analysts who have reviewed the suit and observers who have seen the Temple's subsequent legal action and threats against other critics.[2][3][4] The Satanic Temple and its supporters dispute this characterization, considering it defamation they are willing to sue over, which they have followed through on at least twice.[5][6]

On January 9, 2023, the judge granted a final motion to dismiss in accordance with FRCP 12(b)(1) (lack of subject matter jurisdiction).

On January 24, 2023, The Satanic Temple filed a notice of appeal of this judgment.

Background

[in progress]

Original Complaint

In its original filing, The Satanic Temple levied four complaints against the defendants, alleging two violations under federal law and two under Washington State law:

CFAA:

  • TST claimed that the defendants were previously authorized administrators of the Washington Chapter's social media, and that the contours of this authorization were detailed by a "Membership Agreement and Code of Conduct" which was allegedly signed by all four defendants. Defendant Sullivan allegedly possesses the sole copy of these signed agreements. TST claimed that the Defendants "exceeded authorization" granted by this Code of Conduct by removing non-Defendant

District Court

Docket for Federal District Court via CourtListener

Docket for Court of Appeals via CourtListener

U.S. District Judge Richard Jones dismissed the original complaint on Feb. 26, 2021, but allowed The Satanic Temple to refile on all but one of the initial claims (defamation).[7]

The Plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration on the defamation claim and cyberpiracy claim dismissal in March 2021, which was denied and the dismissal reaffirmed in April 2022.[8] The Plaintiff also amended their complaint twice, first in May 2021 then again in June 2021 after being informed that the Facebook page the Temple was demanding returned had been in TST's possession since May 2020.[9][10] The Defendants made motions to dismiss the case for each of these complaints, and in April 2022, the Judge Jones granted the operative motion in part with leave to amend for several of the dismissed complaints.[11]

However, The Satanic Temple did not amend their complaint for this third time by the deadline given, and in May 2022, the defendants made a motion to dismiss the case for lack of federal jurisdiction on the surviving claims.[12] While working on his reply to this motion, TST lead counsel Matt Kezhaya went onto Reddit for an "Ask Me Anything" about his sanctioning in an unrelated case. In that, Kezhaya did address the Johnson case several times, stating in the original version of his post:[13]

I will not answer any questions related to the idiots that call themselves “QueerSatanic,” or their idiot-conspiracy theories. My only comment on that topic is: I can’t believe you morons have spent more than $80,000 fighting to keep TST’s Facebook page. You are pathetic. You have no concept of civil liberties, or what is at stake by the ever-encroaching theocracy. Your lawyer is a gentleman and a scholar. I hope he squeezes every last penny from you living corpses, and anyone that gives you the time of day.

Despite acknowledging it would be unwise to talk about an ongoing lawsuit, Kezhaya went on to elaborate on his strategy in the case in response to several people's questions, stating:[14]

I wanted some federal statutes to apply because that would maximize TST’s damages, would keep us in Federal court (as opposed to State court), and provided the option to collect attorney’s fees for having to litigate this.

And writing in part:[15]

All three surviving claims are questions of Washington State law, not Federal law. Defendants have moved for dismissal from Federal Court because, they argue, TST cannot show that there is an “amount in controversy” of at least $75,000 (which is required for Federal jurisdiction). I have announced resistance to the motion. I need to come up with a credible justification that it is not-impossible a jury could legally award at least $75,000 in damages. Since punitive damages are on the table, that really means I really only need to justify $12,500 in out-of-pocket damages. Punitive damages can be up to 6x compensatory damages (out-of-pocket losses). I’ve been mired in Belle Plaine since they filed the motion, so I haven’t yet had an opportunity to evaluate the damages.

In June 2022, this material was then included by the Defendants in a response regarding the motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.[16]

While waiting for the judge to rule on the motion to dismiss for lack of federal jurisdiction, on November 23, 2022, The Satanic Temple submitted a motion for a preliminary injunction on another Facebook page: Evergreen Memes for Queer Satanic Fiends.[17] This was an unorthodox legal strategy both because it came two and a half years into the case rather than at the beginning as expected of a preliminary injunction and also because TST lead counsel had before filing been informed of and shown evidence that local representatives of The Satanic Temple had relinquished claims over that very social media page, both in writing and publicly in March 14-15, 2020, before the lawsuit ever began.[18]

TST Washington Media Liaison Paul M. Case ("Tarkus Claypool") sent an email March 14, 2020, with the subject line “Evergreen Memes for Queer Satanic Fiends”, saying:[19]

I saw that you made some changes to the TST WA State Allies FB group. I just wanted to let you know that it’s yours free and clear and we’ve no desire to claim it. You and ADJ built it and have done a great job doing so. I’m confident you’ll both continue doing awesome work.

Sorry the way things panned out, and I do mean all of it. I wish you and your family well, and respect your need to fight the fight your way.

Rock on,

-Tarkus Claypool Media Liaison, The Satanic Temple of Washington (he/him)

The next day, in a March 15, 2020 online town hall meeting via Zoom, Media Liaison Case/Tarkus Claypool again publicly reiterated in front of TST-WA members, including TST Chapter Head, Leah Garvais ("Siri Sanguine"), that TST-WA had no interest in claiming the Memes Page:[18]

I do want to say that we’re not going to, you know, ask Lenore to give the page back in any way. I wish them well, and I hope that they continue growing that and make it a great success. Because they’re going to fight their fight, their way. And so, let them do what they want to, and I wish them well, because both Lenore and ADJ [Johnson] did a wonderful job in the roles that they had. It just wasn’t within the TST guidelines that we are beholden to. So I want to give them due credit, and just you know, wish them well with what they’re going to plan to do with it in the future.

Despite having access to this information since before the beginning of litigation, and being made aware explicitly in June 2022, The Satanic Temple continued to repeat the assertion in and outside of court that a Facebook comment afterward by a third person, Nathan Sullivan — referencing this change in administrator rights by others in regards to a Facebook page he'd never had access to — was an admission of a crime.[20][21][22]

On Jan. 6, 2023, Judge Jones granted the motion to dismiss the case for lack of federal jurisdiction, denying the Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction at the same time.[23]

On Jan. 24, 2023, The Satanic Temple notified the court they intended to appeal their federal district court loss to the Ninth Circuit and subsequently stated they planned to re-file their remaining claims in Washington State court as well.[24]

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Docket for Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit via CourtListener

[Under construction]

References

  1. ↑ GoFundMe.com, Legal Fund for Victims of Satanic Temple
  2. ↑ Newsweek.com, "Orgies, Harassment, Fraud: Satanic Temple Rocked by Accusations, Lawsuit" The defendants say the case has devolved to a meritless S.L.A.P.P. (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) lawsuit as a way to bankrupt them for speaking out.
  3. ↑ Social Actuality, "Schism – The Satanic Temple, a Lawsuit, and the Necessity of Clear Minded Settlement", Jan. 18, 2022 (last updated April 20, 2022) While I may question the wisdom of some of the defendant’s actions, I also question TST’s bringing of plainly frivolous claims (for which the public also suffers harm, as even frivolous claims require precious court resources to litigate) and their general litigation tactics. For example, why weren’t the Dilution and Trespass to Chattels/Conversion claims pleaded in the initial complaint? It seems clear to me that nothing was preventing those claims from being pleaded at that time, so why wait? It creates the impression that TST is not legitimately seeking remedies for any harm caused, but is instead employing litigation in a “process as punishment” tactic to sap the defendants resources and induce what I’m sure is a significant amount of stress into their day-to-day lives. By dragging the defendants through the civil court system, TST may simply be attempting to get back at the defendants in a tit-for-tat conflict which has now spanned the course of 21 months and counting.
  4. ↑ Mike Dunford (@questauthority), Twitter.com, April 26, 2022 I read The Satanic Temple’s complaint on stream tonight. It’s been a while since I was so irate about a case. The complaint itself is SLAPPy as hell; the claims are embarrassingly weak. And, in my view, uses litigation to dox and harass former members. And, to be clear, it’s not even harassing and doxing former members who are parties to the suit; it’s doxing and harassing former members who were sources in the article it’s suing over. This is a bad lawsuit. The lawyers who filed it are bad for filing it. And they should feel bad about themselves. I read the Newsweek article that TST is suing over. That made me think that they were an organization having a commonplace internal splat. Their complaint in the suit made me think that their leaders are vindictive little turdbuckets who should be ostracized from polite society.
  5. ↑ The Satanic Temple, Inc. v. Newsweek Magazine LLC, Complaint, Feb. 16, 2022 45. The article states: “Meanwhile some members wondered why an organization like TST would go after four Seattleites with very modest means while it had bigger fish to fry elsewhere.” Exhibit 1 at 13. Together with the rest of the article, this statement implies that TST’s lawsuit against the Johnson defendants is rooted in a greater policy to harass dissenters, to the exclusion of being rooted in a fiduciary obligation to safeguard TST’s property. This statement and its implications are false and defamatory as follows. 46. It is false to assert that TST harasses dissenters, either as a general policy or specific to the Johnson defendants. The Johnson lawsuit would never have happened if they had simply returned TST’s property upon demand. 47. The assertion is also defamatory. It urges the public to refrain from associating with TST for fear that they will be the next target of harassment and to refrain from donating to TST for fear that the funds will be wasted on a frivolous lawsuit.
  6. ↑ Satanic Temple, Inc v. Jessica Snow, Complaint, filed Nov. 23, 2022 11. Similarly, Defendant Snow stated that TST “is suing former members to make them be quiet about the stuff they experienced while in the Temple.” In fact, TST sued some former members because they stole property from TST and – using that stolen property – channeled provably false and harmful statements to TST’s members to divert funds from those members to a new competitor organization. This is defamatory because it inaccurately paints TST as an abusive organization and tends to diminish the public trust in TST as a religious organization
  7. ↑ Order on Motion to Dismiss — Document #20, February 26th, 2021.
  8. ↑ Order on Motion for Reconsideration — Document #30, April 12th, 2022
  9. ↑ Amended Complaint — Document #26, May 24th, 2021
  10. ↑ Response to Motion — Document #28, June 28th, 2021
  11. ↑ ~Util - Set/Reset Deadlines/Hearings AND Order on Motion to Dismiss — Document #31, April 15th, 2022
  12. ↑ Dismiss — Document #33, May 14th, 2022
  13. ↑ r/SatanicTemple_Reddit post "TST Court Update! (May 26, 2022) -- this one is by TST's lawyer", May 26, 2022
  14. ↑ r/SatanicTemple_Reddit comment, May 26, 2022
  15. ↑ r/SatanicTemple_Reddit comment, May 26, 2022
  16. ↑ Reply to Response to Motion — Document #37, June 10th, 2022
  17. ↑ Preliminary Injunction — Document #42, November 23rd, 2022
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Response to Motion — Document #43, December 13, 2022
  19. ↑ Declaration — Document #44, December 12th, 2022 (Page 26, email sent Sat, Mar 14, 2020 at 9:09 PM)
  20. ↑ GoFundMe.com, The Satanic Temple -Theft & Defamation Legal Fund, July 17, 2020
  21. ↑ Exhibit 5 — Document #26, Attachment #5, May 24th, 2021. (Facebook post and comments from March 15, 2020) Nathan Sullivan: we have a meme page here that we stole from TST: Evergreen Memes for Queer Satanic Fiends and a small group of regional satanists that we're using as a sort of safe space and social club. I imagine i'll be setting up another Discord for us too An uninvolved person asks: But the question is, will you found an actual organization The Satanic Temple 2: Electric Boogaloo? The Satanic Temple 2: The Second One? S2: The Mighty Satanists? Nathan Sullivan replies: Satanism Reloaded actually
  22. ↑ Declaration — Document #46, December 12th, 2022 (Page 19-20)
  23. ↑ Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction AND Order on Motion to Dismiss — Document #48, January 6th, 2023
  24. ↑ Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Document #2, February 1st, 2023 Currently there are no proceedings remaining below, nor are there currently any related proceedings in other tribunals on this matter. To preclude any statute of limitations issues, Plaintiff intends to refile the State claims which survived 12(b)(6) scrutiny and stay the case pending the outcome of this appeal; however, that has not happened yet.
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