There are few subjects that are more polarizing than the debate over the legality and use of contraception. It is for this reason that any decision from the country’s highest authority will be highly anticipated and then greatly debated itself. Knowing a  little history of the controversy surrounding contraception use in the United States can Read More

Case Background Rocco J. Ranieri appealed the decision of a Suffolk County, New York court to award Rae B. Ranieri with $500 in pendente lite relief, which is an alimony amount awarded before divorce proceedings have ended to a party in need of financial support, on December 18 1987. Rocco Ranieri was also ordered to Read More

Please note: this court case pertains to the ULC of Modesto, CA and not the Universal Life Church Monastery of Seattle, WA. The latter’s has never had issues with the IRS or any government agency over taxes. Case Background In the case of the Universal Life Church v. The United States of America, the Universal Read More

Case Background On August 17, 1988, Nadine Fortenberry challenged the will of her late husband, Cobert C. Blackwell. The will left property and a portion of his estate to Blackwell’s first wife, who was deceased by that time. The siblings of Cobert Blackwell, led by Mary Ella B. Magee, claimed that Fortenberry and the deceased Read More

In a recent criminal court case, which concerns a religious dispute between different Amish sects, an Amish bishop by the name of Raymond Hershberger claimed that a group that broke off from his community to form their own Amish sect in eastern Ohio attacked him. The son of Mr. Hershberger, Andy Hershberger, testified against this Read More

Case Background In the case of Lynch v. Universal Life Church, Sandra Lynch initially took the Church to court for allegedly committing fraud. She claimed that the ULC of Modesto, CA guaranteed that their ordained ministers would be able to perform valid marriage ceremonies in the state of North Carolina. The verdict found that the Read More

Court Case Background Robert V. Fike appealed a decision made against him by the IRS to charge him personal income tax and penalties. He was charged $490.01 for the year 1983 and $449.22 for the year 1984. Fike’s argument was that he should have been entitled to charitable deductions for those years due to the Read More

Case Background In the case of Ravenal v. Ravenal, Richard S. Ravenal asked the Supreme Court of New York County for an annulment of his marriage to Cathy Linton Ravenal on the grounds that the individual who solemnized the marriage was not authorized to do so. Cathy Linton Ravenal appeared in court but did not Read More

Case Background On August 14, 1997 the Universal Life Church took the United States of America to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that the automatic stay provision of bankruptcy law had been violated in the case of the Universal Life Church vs. the United States of America. The automatic stay provision provides that Read More

Case Background On March 5, 1985, Lynn Stone Fulton appealed the Superior Court of Orange County, North Carolina decision in the case Fulton vs. Vickery. Lynn Fulton charged Charles E. Vickery and the Universal Life Church, Inc (an organization unaffiliated with the original ULC of Modesto, CA that Vickery was a member of) of having Read More