Posted by Editor | Posted in Personal Injury News
For years, a 29-year-old Georgia woman has alleged that members of her former Texas church abused her during a forced exorcism when she was just a teen.
The woman’s personal injury lawyers have now asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her intentional injury lawsuit.
Laura Schubert alleges that members of the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God held her down, cut and bruised her and forced carpet burns on her back.
She further said she suffered hallucinations after being held down for hours while others tried to dispel a demon. Schubert reportedly attempted suicide after the ordeal.
The Texas Supreme Court threw out her $188,000 jury award this summer, saying that it drew the court into deciding on religious issues, which is unconstitutional.
But Schubert’s personal injury lawyers argue that the court improperly tried to expand the First Amendment’s religious protections, saying that someone’s religious beliefs don’t protect them from state laws prohibiting assault and false imprisonment.
The church’s attorneys argue that the case shouldn’t go before the U.S. Supreme Court because it’s a personal injury lawsuit for pain and suffering and mental anguish and because it concerns protected religious conduct.
Schubert’s lawyers expect to hear by late January as to whether the high court will hear the case.
