It’s hard to tell whether it was the experience of the exorcism itself or whether she ALREADY had problems manifesting psychologically.

Mental disorders usually come in groups. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t more than just PSTD.

While I agree that the system sucks, the problem is that the supreme court can’t decide what church doctrine is real, and what is false. They would have to debate the validity of Christianity and the practices of the church itself.

That is why they are protected by the first amendment. Now, if the girl had been dragged kicking and screaming and wasn’t attending the church anymore, that would probably be another story. But even then, they would still have to determine the source of the PSTD.

You can sue for abuse, but you can’t sue the church because it’s ideas on the existence of demons etc traumatized someone to the point of PSTD. The courts cannot determine if someone was actually possessed either. That would also be meddling in church doctrine.

So while we can say that the verdict is wrong, whether we, or the judges like it or not, legally, the hands of the supreme court are tied in this matter. Legally, there isn’t anything further that can be done, without going into the validity of church doctrine, and the violation of the first amendment.

The reason that the case was thrown out, is because the physical injuries were not the issue the defendants were being tried for.

Laura was awarded for the damages, and then the defendants appealed to the supreme court.

This was based on the fact that the court had previously ruled that looking into the emotional damages would require religious inquiry barred by the first amendment.

Since all of the damages tried were psychological in nature, and it was impossible to separate the damages based on the religious practice and the damages from physical restraint, the supreme court ruled that trying the case would involve inquiry barred by the first amendment.

Laura’s own psychologist was unable to say whether the PSTD that Laura is suffering from is due to religious damage or from the physical nature of the exorcism.

If the psychologist had been able to say without a reasonable doubt that the events in a non religious environment would cause the same effect, then the case could be tried.

*speechless*