A judge has tossed a lawsuit that challenged a controversial Christian-based, work-camp recovery program that critics claimed enslaved participants, though proponents said was an effective rehabilitation center.
U.S. District Judge Terence Kern on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit filed in 2017 in Tulsa federal court by over 50 former participants in a residential, addiction-recovery program near Jay called Christian Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery.
In his order and opinion, Kern sided with the operators of the program and a poultry processing plant that utilized program participants.
The defendants won dismissal on a claim that the lawsuit violated the so-called Rooker-Feldman legal doctrine, which bars lower federal courts such as Tulsa federal court from reviewing the judgments and decisions of state courts once they have become final, according to Kernâs ruling.