CHRISTOPHER LEE PETERSON, Plaintiff, v. WILMUR COMMUNICATIONS, INC., Defendant., 205 F. Supp. 2d 1014

Summary

The employee was a follower of a church that preached a system of beliefs called Creativity, the central tenet of which was white supremacy. In 2000, the employee was employed by defendant employer in a supervisory capacity directing eight other employees, three of whom were not white. Two days after an article appeared in a local newspaper discussing the church, interviewing the employee, and describing his involvement in the church and his beliefs, the employee received a letter from his employer's president demoting him to a position with lower pay and no supervisory duties. During his six years of employment with the employer, the employee had only been disciplined once for a data entry error. On cross motions for summary judgment, the district court found the fact that certain white supremacist organizations, mainly the Ku Klux Klan, had been found not to be religions did not logically mean that Creativity also was not a religion. The court concluded a reasonable jury would be ...