The Maine Supreme Court just wrongfully upheld a lower court decision that bans a perfectly fit mother from taking her own child to church, reading the Bible to her, or even allowing her daughter to associate with church friends.

Liberty Counsel is taking this case, Bickford v. Bradeen, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thirteen-year-old Ava wants to go to church. She misses her friends and hearing the Word of God. But the Maine courts continue to forbid her from attending any church.

If we do not get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn this awful ruling, then parents everywhere can be stripped of their right to raise their children in their own faith.

Judges cannot ban parents from taking their own children to church. Help us win our latest fight against this anti-Christian state court opinion and DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT with our Challenge Grant.

The state court judge found that Emily Bickford is an exceptionally fit parent, EXCEPT for the fact that she is a born-again Christian raising her child in a Bible-believing church.

So, the judge issued an opinion that interferes with Emily's right to take her child to church. And the Maine Supreme Court just irrationally upheld that outrageous ruling!

Thirteen years ago, Emily gave birth to Ava out of wedlock. She has primary custody of Ava and shared custody with the child’s father, Matthew Bradeen. All was fine — until Emily gave her life to Christ. She and Ava joined Calvary Chapel in Maine and became active members in May 2021.

When Ava told her father she wanted to be baptized, Matthew ran to the courts to stop it. That’s when the court issued a stunning order.

Matthew took issue with Ava attending a Calvary Chapel church because it teaches the Bible “verse by verse, chapter by chapter,” including teaching on the Bible’s descriptions of hell, demons, and spiritual warfare.

Don’t let anti-Christians keep children out of church! Support our legal fund today!

Ava's father hired a Marxist and former University of California professor to testify that Calvary Chapel is a cult and that the church's biblical teachings on gender, marriage, and godly living would “harm” Ava.

This sociologist said the church teaches about a “transcendent belief system” that offers answers and “promises some sort of salvation.”

The judge in the case accepted the so-called “expert” witness and testimony as fact. Plus, the court’s order is filled with animus toward Christianity, deliberately relegating every reference to God in lowercase letters ("god").

By intentionally referring to Ava and her mother’s God as “god” throughout the order, the judge and the court mocked their monotheistic beliefs.

I have never in my entire career seen a judge disparage the name of God that way! Even formal legal writing standards insist that God be capitalized. But this judge showed her animus against faith by refusing to follow that writing standard.

The court order even castigated Emily for allowing Calvary Chapel to pray over her and her daughter!

The court order said that attending this church and being exposed to the Bible could be “psychologically detrimental” to the girl. However, the court admitted “there has been no showing of harm to Ava associated with a belief system that is rooted in the Bible.”

Despite the obvious absence of “harm,” the court gave the atheist father sole authority to make “final decisions” regarding the girl’s religious instruction. Specifically, the judge’s order allows the father to deny his daughter access to Calvary Chapel’s services, events, messages, or anything else associated with it. The order also gives the father sole control over his daughter’s participation in any other churches, even during the mother’s custodial time. And so far, the father has refused to approve any church, anywhere — and he even tried to forbid Ava’s mother from having a Bible in the house! 

Liberty Counsel rarely gets involved with child custody cases. But the shocking precedent this order could set — banning people from taking their own children to church — is too outrageous to let stand, so we are now taking this case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Help us get Ava back to church!

A special Challenge Grant for our legal fund has been extended — which will DOUBLE the impact of every donation made today. Please, give generously so that NO COURT can ever again try to ban a parent from taking their own child to church.

Please be in prayer for Emily and her daughter. Be in prayer, too, for the girl’s father that he might accept the love and light of Jesus in his own life.

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

Source:

“LC Will Ask U.S. Supreme Court To Hear “No Church” Case.” Liberty Counsel, September 1, 2026. LC.org/newsroom/details/090126-lc-will-ask-us-supreme-court-to-hear-no-church-case.