Jay Milano, a victims’ lawyer who is suing the Cleveland Diocese for racketeering, has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to disqualify any Catholic judge from presiding over his lawsuit. Milano maintains that from the day Catholic youngsters enter a parochial school, they are taught that an attack on their Church is an attack on God. “We believe it is too much to ask any judge to rule against their God, their diocese, their church and their bishops.”
Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this issue today:
“Jay Milano has publicly stated that the Catholic Church is engaged in organized crime. He has abused the notorious RICO statute by seeking to apply it to the Catholic Church. Now he is libeling all Catholics by saying they are unfit to preside over cases involving the Catholic Church.
“We commend Milano for his honesty. For some time now, the Catholic League has been saying that some of the victims’ lawyers are fundamentally dishonest men. Indeed, the recent revelation that victims’ lawyers are greasing victims’ advocacy groups (see the September 15 edition of Forbes) shows how utterly political the Get-the-Catholic Church movement has become. Now we know some of the victims’ lawyers are inveterate bigots as well.
“When the scandal in the Church first broke at the beginning of last year, the Catholic League said it would not defend wrongdoing committed by the Church. We hold to that principle. But we also said, and continue to say, that we will always honor our mission—the defense of individual Catholics and the institutional Church against defamation and discrimination. Jay Milano is defaming the Catholic Church and is lobbying to discriminate against Catholics.
“I am writing today to Jonathan Coughlan, Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Ohio Supreme Court, seeking disciplinary action against Jay Milano. Disciplinary Rule 1-102 of the Ohio Code of Professional Responsibility dealing with discrimination is the operative provision.”
