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Jonathan Robert Nelson has advised churches and temples in numerous situations,
and has represented them when necessary in civil and church courts. In recent years, the firm defended a temple in mortgage
foreclosure proceedings; represented a church in litigation brought by its denomination to evict it from its property; conducted
a trial defending the board of trustees of a Hindu temple against other individuals who claimed to be trustees; obtained summary judgment dismissing a defamation claim against a pastor; and obtained and defended
a federal injunction against the City of New York on behalf of a church and ten homeless plaintiffs. In the latter case, the federal courts found that the City had violated our
clients' constitutional rights to freedom of religious exercise and freedom of speech by forcibly removing homeless
people whom the church was serving through a program of hospitality and social concern. The case ended in October, 2006 when the United States Supreme Court dismissed the City's petition for certiorari. For copies of judicial decisions in these cases, see “For the Record”.
Mr. Nelson has also served as a prosecutor in an ecclesiastical disciplinary proceeding brought by the Presbytery of New York City against a member of the ordained clergy. As counsel to the Presbytery's Special Disciplinary Committee, Mr. Nelson won the
conviction of the clergyman for sexual abuse of a parishioner committed approximately twenty years before the complaint against
the clergyman was filed. The conviction was reversed on appeal by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s General Assembly, which interpreted the church's statute of limitations in a way that precluded the bringing of the complaint,
but the Commission's interpretation was itself overturned by a vote of the next year's General Assembly.
The office's
representation of religious institutions is not limited to litigation, however. Among other things, the office has: *
represented a church in negotiating a complex site development agreement; *
renegotiated a lease between a church client and a private day-care program that used church property;
* advised
churches on issues relating to the termination of professional employees and clergy, and represented them in negotiating termination
agreements;
* made presentations to church boards and membership meetings concerning legal matters in which the
church was involved;
* obtained the permission of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Kings County and Attorney General of New York State to an independent church's mortgage refinancing plans;
* represented a church in obtaining payment from the
insurer of a construction company that caused damage to the church's roof and drainage systems; * assisted a religious advocacy organization in informing Congressional representatives about provisions proposed in legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives
that threatened to weaken asylum protections for religious asylum applicants (some provisions were changed before enactment
of the law); * presented a specifically Christian viewpoint at an American Bar Association panel discussion on immigration reform proposals (Mr. Nelson's web outline on the subject of a Christian approach to immigration reform has been published online by the Witherspoon Society);
* counseled business clients seeking to be faithful to Christ in difficult contractual relationships;
* obtained religious asylum on behalf of individuals who feared persecution in foreign countries on account of their religious
beliefs, and defended asylum applicants on appeal from administrative orders which erroneously denied their applications;
* obtained "R-1" and special immigrant religious worker visas for pastors and other church personnel;
* advised members of the religious community on immigration issues and represented them in immigration proceedings.
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