Even after 'arbitration' victory, Scientology still snowing the court in Garcia appeal - 2019-12-23

Even after 'arbitration' victory, Scientology still snowing the court in Garcia appeal December 23, 2019, Tony Ortega, Underground Bunker

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Scientology's final word in the complex appeal and cross-appeal of the Luis and Rocio Garcia fraud lawsuit was filed this week, and now the matter is in the hands of the U.S. Eleventh Circuit.

We have the document for you and we'll be interested in what you have to say about it. But we just want to warn you that Scientology is off in the weeds arguing about jurisdictional details that have nothing to do with what has made this case so important and interesting.

Namely, that Tampa federal judge James Whittemore ruled that because the Garcias had signed "religious" membership contracts that had them promising to take any grievances to Scientology internal "religious arbitration," then his hands were tied and he couldn't even consider the Garcias' claims that they had been lied to and defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a federal court judge, Whittemore ruled, he simply couldn't consider the justice of the internal rules of something that called itself a church.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | author = Tony Ortega | title = Even after 'arbitration' victory, Scientology still snowing the court in Garcia appeal | url = https://tonyortega.org/2019/12/23/even-after-arbitration-victory-scientology-still-snowing-the-court-in-garcia-appeal/ | work = Underground Bunker | date = December 23, 2019 | accessdate = December 23, 2019 }}