Tuesday, March 10, 2015

7th Circuit: Milwaukee Archdiocese’s cemetery trust fund not off limits from sex-abuse victims in bankruptcy court


In the latest opinion interpreting the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the Seventh Circuit concluded that the 1993 law does not require the court to exclude a $55 million cemetery trust fund from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy estate. The case, Listecki v. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, involves the question of whether a 2008 transfer of the money from the archdiocese’s general fund to a newly created trust.