Bishops’ Group in Contempt : Catholic Units Face Fines in Pro-Abortionists’ Suit

Accusing the Catholic Church of making a “travesty” and a “game” of the judicial process, a federal judge Thursday held the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Catholic Conference in contempt of court and fined them $50,000 a day each for refusing to turn over documents to an abortion rights group.

The fines are to begin next Monday.

Church-state scholars said that U.S. District Judge Robert L. Carter’s contempt decision against a national church body was virtually unprecedented.

The lawsuit by Abortion Rights Mobilization Inc. seeks to overturn the Catholic Church’s tax-exempt status on the grounds that the church violated the tax code by attacking pro-abortion political candidates.

“In the court’s view, the USCC/NCCB have done more than simply exercise bad judgment,” Carter said in his ruling. “They have willfully misled the court and the plaintiffs and have made a travesty of the court process.”

The judge charged that the church conferences, as part of their legal tactics, “did more than fail to be forthright with the court.”

“They began to engage the court and the plaintiffs in a series of maneuvers that--given the USCC/NCCB’s apparent intention of ultimate non-compliance--made a game of the judicial process,” Carter said.

Charles Wilson, attorney for the two Catholic conferences, said he intends to ask Carter to delay the fines pending an appeal.

The church’s decision to invite a contempt citation was a deliberate legal tactic.

In a letter to the Bishops Conference in March, Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye, general secretary of both conferences, outlined the church’s strategy. By being judged in contempt and by appealing, the two conferences could test whether the District Court had erred in ruling that Abortion Rights Mobilization had standing to sue. Their lawyers could also test whether the abortion group’s subpoenas for documents violate First Amendment guarantees of separation of church and state.

“The only means to obtain appellate review of the District Court’s jurisdiction ruling and to avoid the potential First Amendment problems is to refuse to comply with the subpoenas, be judged in contempt and appeal the contempt citation,” Hoye told the bishops.

Abortion Rights Mobilization brought suit in 1980 challenging the Roman Catholic Church’s tax-exempt status. The Internal Revenue Service also was named as a defendant. Lawyers for the pro-abortion group charged that the church’s lobbying and political activities against abortion rendered the tax exemption unlawful. They argued also that the exemption violated the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Abortion Rights Mobilization complained that it was denied tax-exempt status for advocating abortion while the church conferences are tax exempt and free to engage in anti-abortion activities.

In 1982, Carter dismissed the U.S. Catholic Conference and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops as defendants in the case, leaving only the Treasury Department, parent body to the IRS. But the judge ruled that the church agencies must comply with discovery subpoenas seeking information about the church’s political activities.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops is a strictly ecclesiastical body by which the bishops act as pastors of the church. The United States Catholic Conference is a civil corporation and operational secretariat by which the bishops and other church members act on a wider scale.

The suit charges that the church violated its tax-exempt status by endorsing political candidates who are against abortion. “We are charging that the Catholic Church is in violation of the tax code, which says a tax-exempt religious group cannot support or attack candidates,” Larry Lader, president of Abortion Rights Mobilization, said. “A priest can attack abortion from the pulpit, but he can’t say vote for X and don’t vote for Y.

“We want to go to trial, and we can’t go without the documents,” Lader said.

Scholars who have studied cases involving the church said Thursday that there have been instances in which local congregations and ministers have been held in contempt. But they could not recall a court test in which a national church body received a contempt citation.

In citing the Catholic conferences for contempt, Carter said that both church groups had performed a “wasteful charade.” The judge said he already had ruled that he would not allow the abortion rights group any “broad-gauged incursion” into church files and had barred the plaintiffs from making public any material they discovered. The court had also spelled out what documents should be produced and which were shielded by the First Amendment.

“Some of the documents sought were already in the public realm,” Carter said, “and there appeared to be no basis for withholding them.” In meetings with lawyers, the judge further narrowed the list of documents being sought.

“All of these efforts to protect USCC/NCCB’s acknowledged interests are now shown to have been utterly, utterly futile,” Carter said, because of the church’s intention “to seek appellate review by defying any subpoena, no matter how narrowly circumscribed.”

” . . . Hence, I agree with plaintiffs that the USCC/NCCB’s vigorous activities up to now--seeking protective orders, holding conferences with the court and plaintiffs to discuss and agree on matters which could be subject to confidentiality protection--have been a complete waste of time and energy,” Carter said.