Adorers of the Blood of Christ v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a second lawsuit brought against a gas pipeline company by an order of Roman Catholic nuns who contended that the use of their property in Pennsylvania for an interstate pipeline violated their rights under the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) due to the order’s belief that “the extraction, transportation, and use of fossil fuels accelerates global warming and climate and, thus, defiles God’s creation.” In their first lawsuit, the religious order sought an injunction to stop construction of the pipeline. In the section lawsuit, they requested money damages. The Third Circuit held, as it had in the first lawsuit, that the second lawsuit was an impermissible collateral attack on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) authorization of the pipeline because the religious order should have raised the RFRA claim before FERC.