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Not suspicious. ABC News in Portland reported on it...

<<>> Emily Bickford is challenging a December 2024 custody order that prohibits her from bringing her daughter to Calvary Chapel in Westbrook

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine Supreme Court justices heard arguments in a parental-rights case on Thursday involving a mother who says she has been unconstitutionally barred from taking her 12-year-old daughter to church.

Emily Bickford is challenging a December 2024 custody order that prohibits her from bringing her daughter to Calvary Chapel in Westbrook. A district court judge sided with the child’s father, Matthew Bradeen, ruling that some of the church’s teachings could be psychologically harmful to the girl.

The order allows Bradeen to solely decide on his daughter’s involvement with Calvary Chapel Church. When it comes to any other religious organization, the order states that the parents share rights and must discuss.

Bickford’s attorneys, led by Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, argued that the lower court’s decision violates her First Amendment rights.

“This is a nuclear option, where you give total authority to one parent to make decisions regarding religion over the other parent, who’s a fit parent,” Staver told Maine’s Total Coverage outside the courthouse in Portland, where justices heard roughly 30 minutes of oral arguments.

Bickford said after the hearing that the order has prevented her daughter from attending a place that is meaningful to her.

“She would like to come to church. She misses her friends, and I really hope that this gets overturned,” Bickford said. “It needs to be. It’s unconstitutional.”

The Maine justices did not indicate when they would issue a decision but said a ruling would come “in due time.”

Bradeen and his lawyer declined to speak to the media.

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