Defamation Lawsuit Against Gateway Church and Robert Morris
Legal arguments around Cindy Clemishire’s defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church and its founder Robert Morris focused Friday on a principle designed to protect religious liberty.
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Morris founded Gateway Church in Southlake in 2000 and grew it to one of the largest churches in Texas. He resigned as senior pastor in June 2024, four days after Clemishire publicly accused him of sexually abusing her from ages 12 to 17 in the 1980s. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty in an Oklahoma court to five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.
Last June, Clemishire and her father sued Gateway, Morris and current and former Gateway leaders, alleging they defamed her and conspired to cover up her abuse. The suit focused on a church statement released a day after Clemishire went public with the story.
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In the statement, shared with The Christian Post, Morris admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.” Gateway leaders later apologized to the congregation for describing Clemishire as a young lady, saying instead that she was a “12-year-old child.”
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The Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine
On Friday, Gateway’s attorney Ronald W. Breaux argued the church should be dismissed from the lawsuit. The hearing, before Dallas County Judge Emily Tobolowsky, was held at the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building in downtown Dallas.
Breaux cited the “ecclesiastical abstention” doctrine, which comes from the First Amendment’s mandate that the government not sponsor one religion over others or interfere with religious freedom.
The doctrine says the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion shields churches and their operations from the government’s reach, particularly in civil lawsuits.
Based on that doctrine, Breaux said the court didn’t have the authority to determine whether Gateway’s leaders defamed Clemishire or conspired to cover up her abuse. If the court attempted to do so, it would be telling a church how to govern itself or respond to pastoral misconduct — in direct violation of how past Texas courts had applied this doctrine, he argued.
Ronald W. Breaux, with Haynes Boone, speaks during a hearing in a defamation suit from Cindy Clemishire against Robert Morris and several elders of Gateway Church as Judge Emily Tobolowsky presides over the 298th Judicial District Court at the George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Building in Dallas on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. Clemishire, Robert Morris’ accuser, sued Morris and several elders of Gateway for defamation in June.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
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Previous Cases and the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine
Breaux cited previous cases in which Texas courts had ruled that that doctrine protected a church from potential liability in a civil lawsuit. He brought up one case in particular which he said was extremely similar to Clemishire’s lawsuit.
In that case, the Court of Appeals for the 5th District of Texas at Dallas upheld a lower court’s ruling that a fraud claim against the Diocese of Dallas could not proceed, based on the “ecclesiastical abstention” doctrine.
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