The Supreme Court received a letter from the solicitor general in a filing asking them to set aside an appellate court ruling that allowed a case in Oregon to proceed and continue on against the Vatican.
The solicitor general gathers the opinion of the government, and speaks on its behalf.
The court does not have to follow this recommendation, but this does give insight to what is coming out of the oval office on the subject. The reason for this is that the Government declared that the Vatican was a separate and sovereign nation in 1984, and to proceed with this, we would have to prosecute them. This would of course mean that we would have to prosecute a foreign official.
The case that is being discussed is a case called "Doe v Holy See". It was a case back in 2002 in which a man claimed to be molested by priests in the 60's. The case named "Holy See" as the defendant as well as a few others. The reason that the Holy See itself was made defendant was that this priest has had charges against him before in Ireland, and they sent him there knowing this was possible. The entire case was a statement on the lack of punishment for these people that are abusing children.
Attorney for the Vatican, Jeffrey Lena, has stated that he has no evidence of the priest being moved around, or that the Vatican had control over the priest.
Since this has been issued the options for the plaintiff here are limited and the outcome rather bleak. However his attorney has stated that there is still a chance, the solicitor could have suggested that the case be tossed all together but did not.
I have no clue how the case will proceed from this point, and the court may decide to completely ignore the solicitor general's request. This is a highly in likely scenario, but it just highlights just how this case could change in many ways, and could get very interesting.
Either way, this is not a case that the court will be taking lightly; the results of this case will change the limits of just how far our legal arms can reach. It may also amplify or destroy the imperviousness of the priests in question.
For other articles I've written,
http://rlwoodsiii.blogspot.com/For the original article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...