German Scientologist Prevails in Anti-Discrimination Case
Church of Scientology International claims victory in 15-year battle
In what the Church of Scientology International described as the most important legal precedent in a 15-year battle to win equal rights for its members in Germany, the Federal Supreme Administrative Court in Leipzig has ruled that the Hamburg state government violated the constitutional right to freedom of religion of a Scientologist.
In a judgment issued from the bench, the Court held that the government had no legal basis for disseminating a “filter” that required companies to demand that anyone employed by or conducting business with them disavow the works of
The case concerns a German Scientologist who in November 1996 signed a consultant’s contract with the vitamin company, Berner Ltd, on a freelance basis to sell the company’s vitamin products. In February 1997, she and all other independent contractors received a letter from the company demanding that they sign such a “filter.” The letter stated that the company had been advised by the Hamburg government to use and disseminate the document.
The Scientologist refused to sign on the grounds that to do so would violate her right to freedom of religion under the German Constitution. When the city refused to cease disseminating the filter, she filed suit.
The Federal Supreme Court rejected the arguments of the government and upheld the June 2004 decision of the Hamburg State Administrative Court of Appeal, which found that the Scientologist “not only professes for herself a personal, individual, religious or philosophic belief, but shares this in community with others and thereby obtains the protection of Article 4 [freedom of religion] of the Constitution.”
Said Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International, “This ruling from Germany’s Supreme Court puts the seal of victory on a 15-year-old battle to bring an end to the odious ‘filters’ and to win equal rights for our members. All Germans will benefit, because the Court has reaffirmed that religious freedom is a fundamental right. The German government may not make value judgments about a person’s religious beliefs and practices and then use those unconstitutional judgments as the basis for discriminating against them. The Court has ended the rule of discrimination in Germany.”
The German government’s use of such “filters” has been criticized as discriminatory repeatedly over the years by the U.S. State Department in its annual human rights and religious freedom reports as well as by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.