Thursday, September 24, 2015

Blatant Bias on Display in ECUSA's South Carolina Case

Before the oral arguments yesterday in The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina v. Episcopal Church in the Supreme Court of South Carolina, your Curmudgeon had heard mention of the fact that one of the five justices who would be hearing the case was active in one of the parishes affiliated with the defendant Episcopal Church in South Carolina. I did not look into the question further until I watched the oral arguments live, and could see the justices as they put their questions to each of the attorneys for the litigants.

I took particular note, as I watched, of the attitude and unspoken assumptions behind the questions asked by Justice Kaye Hearn, the newest person elected to that Court. In many cases, it seemed (to this appellate attorney) that her questions were designed more to provide encouragement to ECUSA's attorneys, and to advance their arguments, than they were to probe the various issues at stake in the case.

A little research on the Internet provided the facts that Justice Hearn was a former member of the congregation and choir at St. Paul's in Conway, South Carolina -- a parish that chose to remain with Bishop Mark Lawrence and his Diocese. A group of two dozen or so from that 500-member parish decided they could not remain, and left to form what has since become St. Anne's Episcopal Church, also in Conway. The records there show that Justice Hearn's husband, George, is a member of the parish's vestry and mission committee.

All fine and dandy -- if a little too reminiscent of the case of Justice David E. Nehmias, of the Georgia Supreme Court, who wrote the majority opinion for that Court awarding Christ Church Savannah to the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. It turned out that Justice Nehmias declined to recuse himself from the case, even though he was a prominent member of an Episcopal congregation in Atlanta. In doing so, he failed to follow the example of Presiding Justice George Carley, who recused himself from the case because he belonged to an ACNA parish in the same city.

Could the same bias be operating in the case of Justice Hearn? Consider just the following, taken from the oral argument by the attorney for the appellants (Bishop vonRosenberg's group and ECUSA), Blake Hewitt. These are excerpts from that argument in which Justice Hearn exclusively had the mike. Notice, please, how few of the verbatim quotes below are actual questions which Mr. Hewitt might be expected to have some trouble in answering, as opposed to softballs lobbed in his direction. Notice, too, how many of the quotations are not even questions, but are advocacy speeches which would have been appropriate coming from Mr. Hewitt's mouth, but scarcely proper for a sitting justice to make in a case presented for decision before an impartial court. [Note: Times shown in brackets are for the tape at this link.]

1 [1:56]: But didn't [Judge Goodstein] also disallow you from introducing evidence that would tend to show that [ECUSA] is not a congregational church?

2 [2:45]: Mr. Hewitt, in this case the national Church has called itself a "hierarchical" church. Of course, we could look at Wikipedia, but we wouldn't have to do that, we could also look at the myriad of court decisions, including one from our own 4th Circuit, the Dixon case, which is a very thoroughgoing analysis of what constitutes a hierarchical church, and it seems by any definition, this Church is hierarchical.  But does that matter -- in this case?

3 [4:49]: Your argument is that the Dennis Canon imposed an express trust on this property, and for thirty years, the Dio ---

4 [5:44]: But of course, in this case, Judge Goodstein wouldn't even let counsel for the national Church bring in what had been done as far as disciplining Bishop Lawrence -- in fact, she threatened to revoke his pro hac vice [status] if he didn't stop talking about that, isn't that correct?  

5 [6:10]: Well, [Judge Goodstein] seemed to think that [the] two principles -- hierarchical principles and neutral principles -- can't co-exist, but there's lots of cases that say they can: what's your position on this?

6 [8:35]: And, Mr. Hewitt, doesn't this [questioning the effectiveness of the Church's enactment of the Dennis Canon] call into question the teaching of Jones v. Wolf, about what is necessary for a national church to be able to create a trust -- if that burden is supposed to be 'minimal'?

7 [10:16]: And isn't it correct that this particular Diocese enacted its own version of the Dennis Canon?

8 [10:36]: And Mr. Hewitt, I want you to -- I'm not disregarding the number of cases that have reached the result you are arguing for, with regard to the Dennis Canon, and in almost all those cases, cert[iorari = review] has been denied or dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court, but I would like you, or I would like to hear you, about the Masterson case out of Texas, which seems to take more -- more of an All Saints view. I will note that our sister state of Georgia, in a 2011 opinion, noted that the South Carolina decision in All Saints has not been followed in a church property case by any court outside that case -- outside that State -- so we're dealing with a bit of an outlier, if you will -- but tell me about Masterson.

9 [12:58]: What about all the quit-claims that were issued here?

10 [17:45]: [Interrupting a question by Chief Justice Toal] Well, of course, Mr. Hewitt, if we're going to talk about that [Bishop Lawrence's ostensible authority to execute quitclaim deeds] -- I would like you to talk about his vows, and how the national Church assumed he would be true to those vows, especially when he wrote a letter saying "I intend to stay with the national Church" -- period. So please talk about that.

11 [19:48]: Might that [Bishop Lawrence's signing the Bishop's Statement on Polity] be one reason that in All Saints cert was not sought [by Bishop Lawrence]?

12 [21:35]: If this case -- this Diocese -- is truly congregational, and can just pick up its toys and leave whenever it wants to -- why did it then become part of another larger group? Did it, did it not -- after it purported to leave the national Church?

13 [22:01]: Sure is a lot in the record, and I thought there was some discussion that they were part of another larger group, and so my question was: if they really were congregational, why -- ... [22:22]  I thought it was Global South, a group of third world (mostly) provinces, in Africa -- I mean, I could be wrong.

14 [22:40]: Why isn't this a case -- I'm going to ask the same question of opposing counsel -- why isn't this case, boiled down to its essence, just a question of who should lead this Diocese -- who is the rightful bishop --  and hasn't the national Church answered that question by ordaining Charles vonRosenberg?

There was not one question or statement from Justice Hearn which Blake Hewitt could have had trouble dealing with -- in fact, it many instances (such as Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, and 14) they were just a case of passing the baton to a fellow race runner. In short, this was not a dialogue between court and counsel; it was collaboration between counsel and a co-counsel who sat on the bench.

Notice, too, how in excerpts No. 4 and 10 above, Justice Hearn tried to interject the issue of Bishop Lawrence's faithfulness to his ordination vows into the case. Religious vows are not for the civil courts to consider. That is why churches have ecclesiastical courts, and that is why the Episcopal Church (USA) brought its disciplinary charges against Bishop Lawrence. So Justice Hearn had no business whatsoever egging on ECUSA's attorney to speak about ecclesiastical matters that were not before the Court.

But what if Justice Hearn had an ulterior motive for doing so? Further research on the Internet disclosed that Kaye Hearn of Conway, South Carolina is a signatory member of the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina -- and that she joined when she was still a member of St. Paul's. The Episcopal Forum, for those who may not remember, was instrumental in instigating the bringing of disciplinary charges againt the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence. Moreover, here are just some of the principles to which each member subscribes:
Who are we? 
  • Episcopalians who are united in our desire to remain members in good standing in The Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Communion.
  • Episcopalians who accept that the governing authority of TEC, as given by its Constitution and Canons, is the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
  • Episcopalians who believe that the Holy Spirit is working in the deliberations of The Episcopal Church, General Convention, TEC Executive Council and its conferences and committees
The bias in favor of the national Church that infuses these principles is not hidden; it is made plain for all to see. The second principle alone expresses an opinion on an issue that is at the heart of Bishop Lawrence's case against the national Church. To this attorney, it is simply unbelievable that a sitting Justice who had long ago subscribed to these principles in public would not recuse herself from sitting in judgment on Bishop Lawrence's case.

But we are not done yet. Let's take a look at the corresponding extracts from the oral argument of Bishop Lawrence's attorney, Alan Runyon.

15 [29:23]: I have two questions for you about that, Mr. Runyan. The first one would be the language in the All Saints opinion that talks about where a civil court is presented an issue which is really a question of religious law, but is masquerading as a property dispute. And I know you're familiar with that language, so: why isn't this that type of situation? But my second question -- and I'm sure you'll address it -- there has been a motion to argue against precedent, there's a different Court here -- of course, we take precedent very seriously -- but the majority of this Court did not sit on the All Saints case, and you would have to acknowledge, it is an outlier in this country. So, if you could address those two issues for me -- I understand why you want to argue All Saints; I would, too, if I was in your position -- but if you could answer that for me. 

Notice how Justice Hearn keeps trying to discredit the unanimous decision in All Saints, by belittling it as an "outlier" (this is the second time she used that terms -- see No. 8 above). She brazenly suggests that the three newest Justices on the Court could overrule what five Justices unanimously decided just five years ago. Only a person who resented that decision personally when it came down, and who has fought it ever since, would spend so much effort trying to discredit it in court.

16 [34:44]: [The deference approach is] the majority rule [in cases] on the Dennis Canon? ... There might be eight or nine [cases], at least... And I recognize the different nuances to each of those cases.

17 [35:10]: Are you talking about All Saints? When you say that the law is clear? Well, let's look at All Saints -- there was no analysis in All Saints of the myriad of cases that go the other way. There was no mention of that. How do we know what was really presented in All Saints?

18 [35:47]: You would say that the only way that there could have been a trust created is if the national Church got each individual parish to agree? ... But how would that be the 'minimal burden' that Jones v. Wolf says they're placing on national churches to do this very thing? [Mr. Runyan responds that the court in Jones v. Wolf did not say that.] Well, we'll talk about that. 

19 [37:00]: Well, let me ask you about that [the methods of creating a trust according to Jones v. Wolf]. Let's stop there a minute. Jones v. Wolf was decided in 1979, coincidentally the very same year that the General Convention adopted the Dennis Canon, and I believe your client had a seat -- had representatives there. The Dennis Canon was in effect here for about thirty years, till this brouhaha happened -- and in fact the Diocese adopted its own version of the Dennis Canon. But what I want to direct your attention to -- is: what about Section 33 31-180 of our Nonprofit Corporation Act, that says: "If religious doctrine governing the affairs of a religious corporation is inconsistent  with the provisions of this Chapter on the same subject, the religious doctrine controls"? Why isn't that saying -- why isn't that South Carolina General Assembly saying something like the Dennis Canon would trump any suggestion of State law?

20 [40:43]: If [the language of accession to the national Constitution] didn't mean anything, then why was one of the first things your client did was to remove that language?

21 [43:30]: Yes, Mr. Runyan -- and I would point out, echoing the Chief's concerns, that this was a non-jury trial. And yet I counted over twenty-five objections to Professor McWilliams' testimony -- in a non-jury trial. You all tried so hard to keep any of that evidence out -- and then, the order is issued, and lo and behold: there's a finding that this Church is controlled by the bottom -- that the parishes are really in charge, rather than the national Church. So -- what is it with that?

22 [47:15]: Doesn't [the claim that there is no judicatory in the national Church with authority over dioceses] just get us back to our different interpretations of what the Dennis Canon means and does?

23 [47:43]: Well -- [this court can't pick between the two bishops] because the national Church has already chosen, has it not? The national Church has chosen vonRosenberg as the bishop. Why doesn't that end it? I wanted to ask you that question, I thought I was going to ... 

24 [48:05]: Why wouldn't -- help me with why we wouldn't defer to the national Church's decision on that obviously ecclesiastical matter? You say in your brief -- in the red brief -- you say "Of course, civil courts could not decide who is the appropriate minister." Well, but it seems like you're doing exactly the same thing here -- you are saying "the court can decide who is the rightful bishop." So help me with that. ... You're [relying on] that All Saints [case] again.

25 [49:54]: But I don't see any argument -- Mr. Runyan, I don't see any argument, or hear any argument from the other side that your clients [do not] have a perfect right, an absolute right, to disassociate, to leave. The problem is: can they take property -- that arguably has been held in trust for the national Church for decades -- with them? 

26 [51:40]: Then let me ask you this question. Isn't it correct that at the time of incorporation the stated purpose of the Diocese was to follow the doctrine and polity of the Episcopal Church -- to continue to operate under the Constitution -- yes, that is the language I was looking for. Was that [language] meaningless? ... And they can change their minds?

Mr. Hewitt then came back for his rebuttal, and received the following final assist from his Episcopal co-counsel on the bench:

27 [55:00] Wait a minute. Speaking of the Diocese's relationship with the national Church, talk to us about in 1922, when there was only one diocese in South Carolina, and they wanted to divide into two. Did they do that on their own?

This was truly a disgraceful performance and display of impropriety by one of the country's highest sitting judges. If she does not recuse herself post-argument, there should be, at a minimum, an investigation as to whether Justice Hearn violated Canons 2 and 3 of the South Carolina Code of Judicial Ethics, which state in part:

CANON 2 
A JUDGE SHALL AVOID IMPROPRIETY AND THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY IN ALL OF THE JUDGE'S ACTIVITIES 

A. A judge shall respect and comply with the law* and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

B. A judge shall not allow family, social, political or other relationships to influence the judge's judicial conduct or judgment. A judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others; nor shall a judge convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge.

CANON 3 
A JUDGE SHALL PERFORM THE DUTIES OF JUDICIAL OFFICE IMPARTIALLY AND DILIGENTLY

A judge shall perform judicial duties without bias or prejudice. A judge shall not, in the performance of judicial duties, by words or conduct manifest bias or prejudice, including but not limited to bias or prejudice based upon race, sex, religion, national origin, disability or age, and shall not permit staff, court officials and others subject to the judge's direction and control to do so.

 And here is the Disqualification Standard in that same Canon 3 which Justice Hearn should have applied to herself:
E. Disqualification.

(1) A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where:
(a) the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party ...
It would be impossible, given her participation as a Forum Member and its role in bringing down Bishop Lawrence, and in having him replaced with Bishop vonRosenberg, for Justice Hearn to deny that she harbors a personal bias against Bishop Lawrence and the Diocese he heads.

We await further developments in the South Carolina case.




18 comments:

  1. Even though this seems to be an obviously tainted and activist judge refusing to recuse herself, is she still going to be able to be part of any judgement that would come forth from her group? What can be done in the meantime? Must we wait until the order is given, or must someone move now to make the truth known? If her bias is shown after an order comes out, is that able to be appealed? The liberal mind today has lost any and all moral compass, if ever there was one.

    Right now, though, what can be done, if she is guilty of this breach?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Milton, I believe that once the case is argued and submitted, none of the parties may seek to disqualify the justices who heard the case. At the same time, the South Carolina Judicial Code of Ethics obligates any South Carolina judge to whose attention any possible violation of the Code may come to report it to the disciplinary authorities promptly. So I think that South Carolinians who may be affected by this should try to get it reported to the proper people.

      Delete
  2. What about the blatant bias shown by Goodstein as pointed out by the Chief Justice though?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Two wrongs never make a right. If Judge Goodstein's bias prevented ECUSA from putting on the case it felt it should, then that's what the SC Supreme Court is for -- to correct her bias, and send the case back for an unbiased retrial.

      But there is no Court above the SC Supreme Court -- on matters of State law. Bias at that level is just not correctable -- except at the judge's next election. So while I can acknowledge that the Supreme Court (and not just Justice Hearn) felt that Judge Goodstein improperly excluded evidence, I do so because something is going to be done about it. I am nowhere near as confident that something can be done about Justice Hearn.

      Delete
    2. AC
      Minor quibble, I am member of the same church as retired Justice Carly (St. Barnabas). St. Barnabas is a member of the APA not ACNA.
      liquafruta
      Judge Goodstein is Jewish. I think she was following SC precedent.

      Delete
  3. Notwithstanding the bias, there is a higher biblical principle here, the one where Christians are instructed not to take one another to court but to sort things out amongst themselves and if they cannot to then be the 'bigger person' and give over what is being argued about to the other.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A small correction: the #2 quote above was, as I recall from watching the proceedings, spoken by Chief Justice Toal. The concluding question on that comment shows that she understands the argument being made by Runyon, and this gave me encouragement, even though the Chief Justice seemed displeased with the way the trial was conducted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I beg to differ, S.G. Dargan. Please use the link given here, or at the outset of the post, to go to the tape, and advance it to the time indicated (2:45) as the "speech" begins. At about 2:48 or 2:49, you will see that the speaker clearly is Justice Hearn, and not the Chief Justice.

      However, I remember as well that at one point, Chief Justice Toal asked the same question: "What difference does it make?" And there may have been other justices who made a similar inquiry. It is a key query, and how the Court answers it will determine the outcome of the case.

      Delete
    2. My memory was playing tricks on me. Your are right. However, Judge Toal, at the end of her question immediately following this one by Judge Hearn, repeats, "What does it matter in this case?" Thanks for confirming my sense that this is the most important question.

      Delete
  5. Does the SCSC have the information and final order from Quincy where the rump groups' idea of what their "hierarchical" church is is destroyed; where the hierarchy only goes as high as the diocesan level?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it does, Milton -- the Quincy decision is reported in the official reports of Illinois, and it was cited to the SCSC in the plaintiffs'/respondents' briefs.

      Delete
  6. +) Kaye Hearn is an longstanding and active member of the South Carolina Episcopal Forum, a group that has advocated for the interests TEC against the DoSC. This group helped bring the charges against Mark Lawrence that he abandoned TEC.
    +) Kaye and George Hearn (husband) were members of St Pauls Church, of the DoSC (lower diocese). When St Pauls left TEC as a church, they left St Paul’s church.
    +) George Hearn was delegate to the first convention of the Episcopal Church in SC, the new diocese, representing himself as a member of St Pauls, that had left the church.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think it was refreshing to hear a judge who obviously understood Episcopal polity. To accuse her of bias is a serious charge, and she has never hidden her Episcopalian faith. Her questions were pertinent, and the vows Bishop Lawrence made to become an Episcopal bishop are crucial.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Robert Williams, the fact of her raising and then dwelling upon the vows made by Bishop Lawrence is precisely the problem. If Justice Hearn knows Episcopal polity so well, then she knows that matters of Church discipline are exclusively to be dealt with by following the procedures under Title IV of the Canons. Indeed, Canon IV.19.2 forbids any member of the Church, "whether lay or ordained," from bringing a Church disciplinary matter into the civil courts.

    So while you and others in ECSC may welcome the public airing of the matter of vows in this civil appeal, it is the fact that the Episcopal Forum made their violation such a major part of their case for deposing Bishop Lawrence that is the proof of Justice Hearn's bias. As an Episcopalian, she was forbidden from trying to get the court to address it. As a Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, she had no business dragging it into the case, because it was irrelevant to the actual legal issues at stake. But as a signatory of the Episcopal Forum in SC, she not only strongly desired to raise the matter as a means to discredit Bishop Lawrence -- but she also defied the Canons and her judicial duties and did raise it, anyway. And that's what I call bias.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Even further to what I just said, Robert Williams -- notice how severely Justice Hearn took Judge Goodstein to task for doing precisely what was Judge Goodstein's judicial duty: to keep out all irrelevant evidence, and to prevent its use in an attempt to prejudice and injure the credibility of a key witness. The latter judge followed the law. The former judge followed her own bias.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As one whose previous career experience included dealing with issues involving standards of conduct and ethical concerns, I especially appreciate the vigilance and discernment reflected in you post.

      Delete
  10. The schizophrenia of relativism and progressivism. Also, the leftist and anarchist old standby rule, "What is mine is mine, and what is yours is negotiable".

    Re-reading the relationship the present judge has with one of the parties before the court is well beyond flabbergasting. Perhaps it little matters, nor will it be long remembered because the Anglican Communion will probably melt into a great puddle of Green Slime like the witch in "The Wizard of Oz" sooner rather than later. The Black African Bishops do not seem so disposed to destroy their faith in order to please some rudderless Archbishop.....and the Protestant Episcopal Church of America never heard of King George III but they have read every marching order of the Church of Saint Homosexual and Saint Liberation Theology. They don't need no stinkin' rules or judicial code of conduct.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The humble servant of all those who follow our venerable Rabbi felt as though he should review his harshness and intolerance, at least for a bit. Everything on this topic was read and re-read. You all know how the Gringo Viejo is about re-reading the words of people more intelligent and more capable in terms of their literary ability.

    I change nothing. We think of the sacrifices of Our Rabbi and the ruin that is being attempted against the beauty of Orthodox Worship.
    For those who wonder, I know personally, seven agnostics and atheists who used to go and join us in the back pews...(seek ye the lower place)...And why did they come to some Roman or Anglican place?
    It was because of the antique and comfortable words. The quiet and the kind reception. Imagine....we had synagogues where the atheist went to rest.....where the agnostic went to calmly argue.....But that is seen no more in the confines of the Episcopal Church.

    This whole legal thing is disturbing. Why are we here? Why are we not free to address the ills of the souls of mankind, instead of fighting in court?

    Enough. I hope that our Rabbi calls upon us to contribute if need arises, either in person or in lucre. It is not fair that such genius be forced to pay for itself.

    El Gringo Viejo

    ReplyDelete