Cindy Clemishire’s defamation case against Gateway Church dismissed

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, August 21, 2026

The Dallas-based Fifth Court of Appeals has dismissed child-sex abuse survivor Cindy Clemishire’s defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, after finding that proceeding with the case would violate the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which prohibits civil courts from getting involved with matters of doctrine or church governance.

In a 21-page opinion handed down by Justice Mike Lee on Wednesday, the court found that Dallas County District Judge Emily Tobolowsky "abused her discretion" when she denied Gateway Church's motion last November to dismiss Clemishire's defamation lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds. Lee wrote both opinions for a three-judge panel that also included Justices Emily Miskel and Nancy Kennedy.

“The ecclesiastical abstention doctrine requires dismissal of real parties' claims against relators. We do not address whether Gateway's June 14 statement was defamatory as to Cindy or Jerry Clemishire,” Justice Lee wrote in his opinion.

“Our holding rests solely on jurisdiction; because the claims are inextricably intertwined with ecclesiastical matters, the First Amendment precludes judicial resolution of their merits. We therefore conclude the trial judge abused her discretion in denying these four relators' pleas to the jurisdiction.”

Tobolowsky rejected the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine defense invoked by the church and elders John D. "Tra" Willbanks, Kenneth W. Fambro II, and Dane Minor as they sought to have the case dismissed earlier. Tobolowsky was not convinced that internal communications and statements made by the church about Clemishire’s sexual abuse to members are protected under that doctrine.

In a separate opinion issued the same day, the court also dismissed all but one claim against Robert Morris, Gateway's founder, and other individual defendants, including his wife, Deborah Morris, and the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association. That means, unlike Gateway and the three elders — whose dismissal from the case is now complete — one claim against Morris remains active as the litigation continues.

Gateway Church founder Robert Morris was given a six-month jail term and a 10-year suspended sentence during a hearing in Osage County Court, Oklahoma, last October after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Clemishire, 55, for 4.5 years in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12. At the time, Morris, who founded Gateway Church in 2000, was serving as a traveling evangelist. 

Morris was released from custody in March. 

The defamation lawsuit filed by Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, in June 2025 sought more than $1 million in damages, alleging that Morris and Gateway Church leaders publicly mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual "relationship" with a "young lady" instead of the sexual assault of a child after the abuse was made public in 2024.

In an affidavit dated Nov. 6, Clemishire said statements made by both Morris and former Gateway Church elders minimized her sexual assault, which caused her ongoing attacks from Gateway Church followers and members of the public.

After reviewing arguments from both Clemishire and Gateway Church in the case, including the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine defense, Tobolowsky denied the pleas to dismiss.

"After reviewing the Pleas, Plaintiffs' responses, applicable law, and arguments of counsel, and reviewing evidence, the Court finds that the Pleas should be DENIED,” she wrote on Nov. 11.

In a separate 16-page order that day, Tobolowsky also granted Clemishire’s motion for continuance and limited discovery to oppose the defendants’ motions to dismiss her lawsuit under the Texas Citizens Participation Act in open court. The TCPA is a 2011 law that protects citizens from lawsuits intended to stifle their First Amendment rights.

Justice Lee noted in his opinion Wednesday, however, that once a court determines that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine applies, “it must dismiss the case.”

“We conclude that the trial court abused its discretion by denying relators' pleas to the jurisdiction. The ecclesiastical abstention doctrine bars real parties' claims against Gateway, Willbanks, Fambro, and Minor,” he wrote.

The appeals court ordered Tobolowsky to vacate her previous order denying the church’s motion to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds and grant the motion to dismiss the case within 30 days. She was also ordered to file those actions with the court within 45 days of the opinion from the Court of Appeals.

Reacting to the ruling, Gateway Church praised the court for dismissing the lawsuit in a statement cited by Fox 4.

“We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has dismissed the case against Gateway and the Independent Elders. As the Court’s opinion confirms, this case was never about Gateway. While Gateway grieves and laments Robert’s child sexual abuse of Cindy, that abuse happened 20 years before Gateway was founded,” the church said.

“Plaintiffs did not sue Gateway over the tragic abuse itself, but over the Church’s statements about Robert’s misconduct. Those statements were made by a Church seeking to shepherd its congregation and, as the Court held, are therefore protected by the First Amendment,” officials continued. “We are grateful that the Court’s opinion vindicates and safeguards Gateway’s foundational first liberty, and we continue to pray for healing and peace for Cindy and her family.”

Bill Mateja, Morris' attorney, also applauded the ruling in comments to The Roys Report, saying the lawsuit "was an attempt to pull a church's internal reckoning into a courtroom where it doesn't belong," and that "the Court of Appeals confirmed that the First Amendment doesn't allow it."

When asked for comment Friday, Clemishire pointed The Christian Post to her attorney Jeff C. Leach, of Texas-based law firm Gray Reed, who also serves in the Texas House. Reed, a Republican member of the Texas House representing Collin County, is the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and is the author of Trey’s Law, which forbids the use of NDAs in sexual abuse cases.

“The ruling issued late Wednesday by the Texas Court of Appeals has deeply troubling consequences for survivors and victims of childhood sexual abuse. If allowed to stand, it effectively grants religious organizations sweeping immunity from civil accountability—even when they are alleged to have knowingly concealed, enabled, or protected child sexual predators—simply because those actions occurred within a religious institution,” he said in the statement shared with CP.

“This case demonstrates the danger of such a rule. Robert Morris repeatedly sexually abused Cindy Clemishire beginning when she was just 12 years old. Rather than ensuring accountability, the institutions and individuals surrounding Morris allowed the truth about that abuse to remain hidden for decades,” he continued.

“The constitutional separation of church and state is a fundamental principle of our country, and religious institutions are entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment. But religious liberty was never intended to become a shield for concealing child sexual abuse or protecting those who perpetrate it,” he added.

Leach argued that religious organizations should not be allowed to escape accountability by simply invoking the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine and vowed that he and other advocates will not stop fighting to protect survivors.

“No church should receive less constitutional protection because it is a church—but neither should it receive greater protection from accountability when children are sexually abused. A secular school, business, youth organization, or other institution cannot invoke religious doctrine to escape responsibility for knowingly protecting a child predator. Religious organizations should not be given a special exemption from the same basic rules of accountability,” he argued.

“The effect of this ruling is to create precisely that double standard. It permits bad actors within religious institutions to invoke the ecclesiastical-abstention doctrine as a barrier to claims arising from the concealment and enabling of child sexual abuse. That is not what the First Amendment was designed to protect.”