A choose within the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday dismissed parts of Leah Remini‘s civil defamation and harassment lawsuit in opposition to the Church of Scientology, to which the actor previously belonged.
In a prolonged, blended ruling, Judge Randolph Hammock struck down important parts of the lawsuit on the grounds of American First Amendment rights.
In the virtually 40-page ruling, which was shared by Deadline, the choose threw out sure defamation claims underneath California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which protects free speech to do with issues of public curiosity.
Hammock’s ruling, nonetheless, nonetheless allowed for Remini’s allegations of stalking, harassment and surveillance by the church to proceed.
In a press release to Global News, the Church of Scientology known as the choose’s choice to strike sure parts of the lawsuit a “victory in court against Leah Remini.”
“This is a resounding victory for the Church and free speech — Remini’s complaint was gutted,” the group wrote.
The church mentioned it will likely be pursuing lawyer’s charges from Remini, which they’re entitled to use for underneath the anti-SLAPP statute. Remini also can apply for lawyer’s charges, ought to she select to.
Remini has not commented publicly on the blended ruling.
Leah Remini’s Scientology lawsuit
Remini filed a lawsuit in opposition to the church and its chief, David Miscavige, in August 2023. She accused Scientology of utilizing “mob-style operations and attacks” to harass her since she defected from the religion in 2013.
The lawsuit is looking for unspecified damages for the hurt she claims Scientology inflicted on her and her profession.
When Remini initially filed her lawsuit, the church known as the allegations “pure lunacy” and accused Remini of “spreading falsehoods and hate speech.”
What was faraway from Leah Remini’s lawsuit?
Remini’s lawsuit claims she is the sufferer of Scientology’s “Fair Game” techniques, which makes her an open goal for harassment, each on-line and in-person.
In the previous, the church has created a web site disparaging Remini in over 10 totally different articles that decision her every little thing from a “bigot” to “racist” and “pro-rape.”
The choose known as these situations, in addition to others, “parody,” specifically when Scientology circulated doctored photographs of Remini carrying an “I (heart) rapists” T-shirt after she testified within the 2022 rape trial of director Paul Haggis.
Hammock mentioned the web posts, “while highly offensive and inappropriate, can only be deemed parody.”
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“No one viewing those statements could take them literally,” he wrote.
Judge Hammock decided the church’s feedback about Remini are honest underneath free speech legal guidelines as a result of Scientology is “a high-profile entity speaking on a high-profile figure.”
The choose mentioned each Remini and the church have been “responsive to, or provoked by,” each other’s verbal assaults.
“When viewed in context, the First Amended Complaint plainly demonstrates that the alleged statements Defendants made about Plaintiff online implicate a broader public dispute over Plaintiff’s relationship with Scientology,” the choose wrote in his ruling. “The online posts are themselves a part of the public’s interest in Plaintiff and Scientology.”
What remains to be permitted in Leah Remini’s lawsuit?
Some of Remini’s defamation claims nonetheless stand.
These allegations embody Scientology-made statements that Remini was verbally abusive to her personal daughter, that she “ransacked” her grandmother’s house and that Remini refused to pay for her father’s most cancers remedies.
Remini may nonetheless current to the court docket her claims that she is being stalked by Scientology operatives. These allegations embody studies that an unknown individual drove their automotive into the gates of her neighbourhood neighborhood and smashed her mailbox with a hammer in an try to steal her mail.
Scientology tried to argue that any surveillance of Remini was accomplished as a sanctioned “pre-litigation” exercise, although the choose didn’t agree.
“The court sees no public interest in the surveillance of private citizens — even celebrities — under an unsupported suspicion that litigation may occur at some later time,” Hammock wrote.
Remini’s tortious interference allegations have been additionally permitted.
The actor alleged members of the church repeatedly harassed a number of colleagues and interfered in her employment contracts. Remini claimed Scientology operatives harassed staff of iHeartMedia and the distribution platform AudioBoom, each of which dealt with her podcast Scientology: Fair Game, till the businesses ended her contract.
Remini’s lawsuit in opposition to the Church of Scientology is about to start on Oct. 27, 2025.
Leah Remini, a ‘suppressive person’
Since leaving the church in 2013, Remini has been labelled a “suppressive person,” the identify usually given to defectors who, in line with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s philosophy, search to quash the betterment of a bunch, on this case the church.
Remini’s attorneys tried to acquire a sweeping judicial order that might forestall the church from labelling individuals suppressive individuals and making victims of “Fair Game” techniques. The choose turned down the order for Constitutional causes, although famous the court docket “need not issue declarations simply telling parties to obey the law.”
After submitting her preliminary lawsuit in opposition to the church final 12 months, Remini mentioned she skilled “continued, aggressive harassment.”
In September 2023, Remini amended her lawsuit and claimed the harassment in opposition to her has “escalated to a much greater degree than ever before.”
Remini mentioned she, in addition to her mates, household {and professional} colleagues, have all been targets of harassment, together with alleged stalking and bank card fraud.
Regardless, Remini has continued her vocal criticism of Scientology. On Thursday, the actor requested her followers on X (previously Twitter) to donate to The Aftermath Foundation, a corporation that gives assist to Scientologists who need to go away the religion.
Remini mentioned the muse was pressured to take away an adversarial billboard after “threats and pressure tactics” from the church, regardless of the group allegedly having a one-year contract for the billboard. (It hasn’t been confirmed that Scientology was chargeable for the eliminated billboard.)
“Taking this billboard down is unacceptable and just another example of a major corporation caving to a dangerous totalitarian cult that is abusing its members daily as a matter of policy,” Remini wrote.
The King of Queens actor joined the Church of Scientology as a toddler in 1979 however left greater than three a long time later.
Since separating from Scientology, Remini has constantly criticized the spiritual group and Miscavige for severe abuses of energy.
In 2016, she launched the documentary sequence Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, which she produced and co-created. The sequence received three Emmy Awards.
Remini additionally mentioned she was “relieved” to see “dangerous rapist” and famous superstar Scientologist Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in jail for 2 counts of forcible rape.