The case has been going on for seven years, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees, but the Indiana Supreme Court now has ruled that a small homeschool group cannot be penalized by the state because of one member family’s complaint over a chicken dinner at a social event.
“The [Indiana Civil Rights] Commission lacked authority to take any action other than the dismissal of these claims arising from an inter-group squabble over the type of meal to be served to a member family’s child at an ‘All Souls’ Day Masquerade Ball’ dinner-dance social event – an incident not related to education and thus not within the commission’s prerequisite statutory authority,” said the court’s majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Brent E. Dickson.
“We vacate the commission’s final order and remand this cause with instructions to grant the motion to dismiss filed by [the homeschoolers] as to both claims.”
The case was fought on behalf of the homeschoolers’ group, Fishers Adolescent Catholic Enrichment Society, by the Thomas More Society.
Thomas More Vice President Peter Breen said: “In trying to control the affairs of a small religious homeschool group, the Indiana Civil Rights Commission far overstepped its authority. Unfortunately, it took years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney time in order to stop this outrageous government overreach. We’re glad that the Indiana Supreme Court has now ordered the commission to stop its harassment and dismiss this case.”
The legal team said the “precipitating event took place in 2008, when a Catholic Enrichment Society parent requested a steak dinner” instead of a chicken dinner for her daughter, who planned to attend a dinner-dance at a contracted venue.
The volunteer who organized the event said the parent, Elizabeth Bridgewater, should instead bring a meal for her child, Alyssa, then 15, who reportedly had allergy issues. But the mother arranged separately with the venue for the steak dinner.
“The next day, on behalf of her daughter, the parent filed a complaint with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, alleging the homeschool group discriminated against her disability,” the legal team explained.
“After several other incidents involving the parent, the volunteer mothers of the Catholic Enrichment Society expelled that parent and her family from the 11-family group. The parent then filed a further complaint with the Civil Rights Commission for retaliation.”
The commission originally awarded the complaining family $5,000 and issued a series of orders against the homeschool group, based in Fishers, Indiana.
However, the high court overturned the ruling.
“The commission’s consideration of the merits of either discrimination claim was clearly erroneous because both claims fell outside the commission’s statutory authority and thus should have been dismissed outright,” the court said.
The ruling continued: “Because the commission lacked statutory authority to act upon both the disability discrimination claim and the claim of exclusion from membership in retaliation for asserting the disability discrimination claim, both claims should have been dismissed as exceeding the authority of the commission, and it is therefore unnecessary to address any further issues, constitutional or otherwise.”
The Thomas More Society said: “The legal onslaught brought to bear by the government of the state of Indiana rapidly depleted the limited resources of the Fishers Adolescent Catholic Enrichment Society. The Thomas More Society took on the legal defense pro bono, at no charge to the families in the group. The group itself eventually ceased operations, as the families decided not to continue operations under the conditions imposed by the Civil Rights Commission.”
Thomas More’s Breen concluded: “This was a case that the Indiana Civil Rights Commission had no business taking on. In doing so, the commission usurped parental rights, destroyed a small religious group, and wasted taxpayer resources prosecuting a frivolous and petty complaint that it should have instead immediately rejected.”
