Christian group sues state agency over fine

A Christian group has sued the state Department of Social Services director, challenging her jurisdiction over religious schools after she imposed a $200-a-day fine on a boarding school for troubled teenagers for refusal to file for a license to operate.

Teen Rescue runs a private Christian school which has been sanctioned under SB 524, passed in 2016, which had the effect of extending to private religious schools state laws designed to protect LGBT people, including a state ban on gay conversion therapy for minors. The law placed such schools under the Community Care Facilities Act.

The complaint, filed Friday, opens a new front in a battle first begun in federal court in March. That case challenged the state's jurisdiction over religious schools under the Community Care Facilities Act and alleged 14th Amendment violations. U.S. Eastern District Judge John A. Mendez dismissed portions of that case in April and has written his court lacks jurisdiction over the state-level issues raised. Teen Rescue v. Becerra, 19-CV-00457 (E.D. Cal., filed March 13, 2019).

But Kevin T. Snider, an attorney with the Pacific Justice Institute who is representing Teen Rescue in both cases, said the new complaint is not a response to developments in the federal case. Instead, it was a long-planned challenge to the $200-a-day fine Department of Social Services Director Kim Johnson has imposed since April -- a total that has now grown to about $28,000 . The lawsuit was filed after completion of an administrative appeal directly to the agency. Teen Rescue v. Johnson, 80003206 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 23, 2019).

-- Malcolm Maclachlan