From: cerberus@medusa.com (Cerberus)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: SCIENTOLOGY CRITICS GET PAPERS BACK -- Rocky Mountain News 12-13-95
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 10:35:38 GMT
Message-ID: <4amadu$7c4@natasha.rmii.com>

Not sure if this is good news or not, but here's the latest from the
Rocky Mountain Snooze, a reliable source if you rely on it to get the
details wrong.  I particularly like the part about the CoS "selling"
the OT information.  

begin RMN========================================

Rocky Mountain News, Wednesday, December 13, 1995, page 21A

SCIENTOLOGY CRITICS GET PAPERS BACK

JUDGE SAYS MEMBERS' SPIRITUAL CONCERNS CAN'T BE A FACTOR IN RULINGS

by Karen Abbot, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Scientologists' fear for their immortal souls can't be a factor in
court decisions, a federal judge has ruled.

Denver U.S. District Judge John Kane, in an order he signed Monday,
ordered some Scientology materials returned to Boulder residents Larry
Wollersheim and Robert Penny, embittered former Scientologists who now
distribute information about the organization on the Internet.

The most controversial materials, Internet postings by anonymous
people worldwide that claim to reveal some of Scientology's secret
beliefs, will remain sealed and in the custody of the court clerk,
Kane ordered.

Church officials in October protested an order to return the documents
saying they would be committing heresy, would be excommunicated and
would be jeopardizing their immortal souls if they turned over some of
the most sacred and secret materials.

"The materials cannot be surrendered to apostates," they said in court
documents, citing First Amendment religious freedom protections.

Kane then ordered all the disputed materials into the custody of the
court clerk.

The Church of Scientology teaches that people can rise to higher
levels of enlightenment through "auditing" sessions in which they
purge themselves of negative energy from traumas, including those in
past lives.

Church officials did not respond to a request for comment on the
ruling Tuesday.

Tom Kelley, attorney for Wollersheim and Penney [sic], said Kane "has
done the right thing."

Kane cited two other court rulings on the question of religious
beliefs that conflict with law.

The church has sued Wollersheim and Penny on grounds they violated
copyright and trade secret laws by distributing secret information the
church sells to members.  In August, with a court order, the church
seized the two men's computer equipment and related materials in raids
at their homes.

In this week's order, Kane said Wollersheim and Penny should get back
all materials on paper and all computer materials except the sealed
Internet postings.

On the religious freedom question, Kane quoted from a 1990 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling:  "The government's ability to enforce generally
applicable prohibitions of socially harmful conduct...'cannot depend
on measuring the effects of a governmental action on a religious
objector's spiritual development.'"
                                                  -30-

end RMN==========================================

So I guess the Honorable Kane in His Wisdom elected to keep the
Fishman docs sealed.  Easy for him to say.  He ain't down there in the
pits with the other "mutts."  Too much capon makes you into one.

Makes an old dog proud to be Dutch.

Cerberus
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