Robert Morris Accuser Asks Texas Supreme Court to Revive Suit Against Gateway Church
Cindy Clemishire petitioned the Texas Supreme Court in September, asking the justices to review and reverse a Dallas appeals court ruling that dismissed most of her defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church, former lead pastor Robert Morris, and three former elders. Clemishire sued in June 2025 after publicly saying Morris sexually abused her when she was twelve years old. The Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled in August that her claims against the church and elders could not proceed in civil court because they involved the church's internal investigation and governance, relying on the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine rooted in the First Amendment. Most of her claims against Morris were dismissed separately, though one claim tied to a sworn statement he filed in unrelated litigation survives.
Texas state representative Jeff Leach, one of Clemishire's attorneys, said in a statement that religious liberty cannot mean religious immunity. "Protecting a predator is not theology, and defaming his victim is not church doctrine," Leach said. Gateway's attorney has said the appeals court ruling protects the church's ability to investigate misconduct and communicate with its congregation without civil courts reviewing internal religious matters. Morris resigned from Gateway in June 2024 and pleaded guilty in Oklahoma in October 2025 to five counts of lewd acts involving a child, serving six months in jail before his release. The Texas Supreme Court has not said whether it will take the case.
