King County judge determines TST “has no rights to or interest” to Facebook memes page the national for-profit Satanic corporation has been suing to get since 2020

Seattle, Wash. – After almost four and a half years, The Satanic Temple’s infernal litigation against four former members may finally be coming to end.

On Tuesday, a judge in King County Superior Court dismissed with prejudice all remaining claims by the nontheistic religion’s for-profit corporation “United Federation of Churches, LLC”. Judge Suzanne R. Parisien ruled unequivocally that the ex-members had the lawful right to use the Facebook page “Evergreen Memes for Queer Satanic Themes,” while the Temple, which launched the suit following criticism of the religion and its owners, had “no rights or interest in the Memes Page.”

The corporation’s doing-business-as name is “The Satanic Temple.”

“It has been 1635 days since The Satanic Temple filed their case against us in federal district court,” defendant David Johnson said. “The Satanic Temple has lost every step of the way and shown themselves to be a toxic, abusive religious organization to everyone who has bothered to pay attention — though unfortunately, too few people have.”

If the Temple does not appeal this loss, it would finally conclude a series of lawsuits and appeals by the Salem, Mass.-based organization initially begun while Covid-19 lockdowns were still in effect in most of the country and people were focused on washing their groceries as well as their hands. TST’s litigation has not only persisted despite repeated failures in federal court, it has since expanded to defamation lawsuits targeting the magazine Newsweek and its reporter as an individual for writing about the Washington State case in 2021 as well as against a TikToker sued in 2022 after she made a video talking about the case. The Satanic Temple forced the Texas woman to record and publish a retraction video then sued her anyway months later.

Defendant Nathan Sullivan pointed to the irony of The Satanic Temple’s reputation as a champion of First Amendment freedoms when set against the reality of its specific conduct in this case, which he characterized as “lawfare”.

“Once again, TST has lost another lawsuit on the basis of being caught making bad-faith claims against unrelated people on the basis of damages that TST repeatedly refused to provide a shred of evidence of having occurred at all,” Sullivan said. “This is not a normal way for any religion to act, let alone one that postures unironically as a champion of the marginalized against theocracy. We are of course overjoyed about this fitting end to the Temple’s protracted lawfare against us, but it is also a grim reminder that this is what the Temple thinks of as a justified use of its resources and public goodwill, and the media narrative that this group has some kind of vaunted plan to ‘save democracy’ should be outright dismissed by anyone who takes the concept seriously.”

According to invoices posted publicly, legal defense costs for the first three years of litigation across multiple courts cost defendants more than $125,000 despite winning repeatedly at each stage of the various court battles.

Defendant Leah Fishbaugh also reflected on the human costs.

“It’s hard to allow myself to celebrate after four arduous years, but I assume that’s what TST’s goal was — to rip the joy from our lives and make sure we’re always looking over our shoulders for their next move,” Fishbaugh said.

• Full docket
• order denying Plaintiff’s (TST’s) motion for partial summary judgment
• order granting Defendants’ motion for summary judgment in full

Full text of the order granting dismissal:

The Honorable Suzanne R. Parisien

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON IN AND FOR KING COUNTY

UNITED FEDERATION OF CHURCHES, LLC (dba “THE SATANIC TEMPLE”)
Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant,
v.
DAVID ALAN JOHNSON (AKA “ADJ”), LEAH FISHBAUGH, MICKEY MEEHAN, and NATHAN SULLIVAN,
Defendants/ Counterclaimants

No. 23-2-06120-9 SEA

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendants David A. Johnson, Leah Fishbaugh, Mickey Joshua Powell, and Nathan Sullivan (“Defendants”). Having considered:

1. Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment;
2. The Declaration of David Johnson in Support of Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment;
3. The Declaration of Nathan Sullivan in Support of Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment;
4. The Declaration of Mickey Powell in Support of Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment;
5. The Declaration of Jeremy Roller in Support of Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment;
6. Plaintiff’s Response and all attachments;
7. thereto and;
8. Defendants’ reply;

having heard the arguments of counsel, and being fully advised, the Court hereby GRANTS Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff United Federation of Churches, LLC’s claims against Defendants are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. The court further DECLARES that Plaintiff United Federation of Churches has no rights to or interest in the Memes Page and that Defendants may lawfully use the Memes Page.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated this 24th Day of September, 2024
Hon. Suzanne R. Parisien
King County Superior Court Judge

After a schism in March 2020 in the Washington State chapter, the Temple alleged that then-social media manager David Johnson used what had been the local chapter’s Facebook page to post criticism of the Temple and how its leaders’ actions had not lived up to TST’s own stated tenets and values. This criticism came in the form of news articles, other former member testimonies, and past actions by TST co-owners Cevin Soling and Doug Misicko. Misicko has also used the public pseudonyms “Doug Mesner” and “Lucien Greaves” for the Temple, while Soling initially used the pseudonym “Calvin Soling” for the lawsuit and uses “Malcolm Jarry” for the Temple.

In initial court filings, the Salem, Mass.-based for-profit corporation United Federation of Churches, LLC dba “The Satanic Temple” tried to allege they were victims of defamation. The court dismissed the defamation claim with prejudice in February 2021 citing First Amendment protections, but the remaining claims were dismissed with leave to re-file. TST did so in March 2021, adding new claims, revising others, and dropping one. In April 2022, the Temple’s attempt at reconsideration failed and all remaining federal claims also were dismissed. In June 2022, TST’s lead counsel Matt Kezhaya admitted on his Reddit account that he needed to come up with “a credible justification that it is not-impossible [sic] a jury could legally award at least $75,000 in damages” and that he hoped legal defense costs squeezed “every last penny from [the defendants’] living corpses, and anyone that gives [them] the time of day.” In January 2023, he federal judge dismissed what remained of the case again, but The Satanic Temple appealed its second loss to the Ninth Circuit and also re-filed part of the case while adding new claims in state court in April 2023 — notably after the three-year statute of limitations had run out on events from March 2020.

In November 2023, The Ninth Circuit affirmed most of the lower federal court decision but allowed TST to revive their defamation claims if they could specify what exactly had been said about them that was false and defamatory. Apparently unable to do so, The Satanic Temple voluntarily dismissed the federal case against the Defendants in January 2024.

Meanwhile, in February 2022, TST sued Newsweek and reporter Julia Duin for in October 2021 publishing a story about the federal district court case up to that point. Newsweek has thus far prevailed in its legal defense with a score of initial claims whittled down to just one (TST objecting to accounts of sexual abuse within the organization) and one issue remaining (whether the self-described “famous nontheistic religion” is a public or private figure). The case has also involved embarrassing revelations about who and how much The Satanic Temple paid for crisis public relations management, how it pays to seed stories in legacy media outlets, and how it reacts to sexual abuse and harassment claims.

In November 2022, TST also sued a woman in Texas for making two TikTok videos critical of them, after first forcing her to record a retraction that she was unable to repeat without sobbing. This is despite the fact that her criticisms of the religion were largely and provably accurate.

In addition to these examples, TST has threatened other journalists it believes will write critical stories of them and used threats of violating perpetual “non-disparagement” clauses in contracts with its volunteers to intimidate them into silence. The Satanic Temple has admitted in court to tasking at least one paid agent to stalk and monitor its critics like the Washington State defendants in order to look for potential excuses to start new defamation lawsuits. Facing a deadline in the federal court case in 2022, The Temple’s primary lawyer Matt Kezhaya went on Reddit to say outright that he hoped the Washington State defendants’ legal defense costs would “[squeeze] every last penny from you (sic) living corpses, and anyone that gives you the time of day,” then went further to admit that with an approaching deadline, he needed to “come up with a credible justification that it is not-impossible a jury could legally award at least $75,000 in damages”.

“Thank you all for your support over these long four-plus years,” Johnson said. “Based on their pattern of behavior, The Satanic Temple is likely to appeal this loss or perhaps invent a new pretext to continue this SLAPP in a new venue. We know that. But TST also should have much bigger issues to deal with than lighting money on fire by continuing to come after us, so maybe they will finally walk away now. We would definitely appreciate getting a chance to rest.”

Moreover, we are no longer being sued by The Satanic Temple in federal district court or King County Superior Court