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BANKS v. ST. MATTHEW BAPTIST CHURCH

No. 27317.

406 S.C. 156 (2013)

750 S.E.2d 605

Ira BANKS, James Bell and Vernon Holmes, Respondents, v. ST. MATTHEW BAPTIST CHURCH, an Unincorporated Association, and Clinton Brantley, of whom Clinton Brantley is the, Petitioner.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Decided September 25, 2013.

Rehearing Denied December 5, 2013.

Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

P. Gunnar Nistad and Helen F. Hiser , of Mt. Pleasant, and Weston Adams, III , of Columbia, all of McAngus Goudelock & Courie, LLC, for Petitioner.

Thomas O. Sanders, IV , of Sanders Law Firm, LLC, of Charleston, for Respondents.

Justice HEARN.

In this case we must decide whether a pastor may use the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause to shield him from tort liability for allegedly defamatory statements he made about the church's trustees at a congregational meeting. While the pastor acknowledges the non-religious nature of his statements, he contends the setting in which they were made and their relationship to church governance places the trustees' defamation claim outside the jurisdiction...

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