By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor WASHINGTON (LBM) – The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the lawsuit filed by the North American Mission Board, who had asked the nine justices to review the verdict of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Southern Baptist Convention entity’s legal battle with Will McRaney, the former executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. In effect, the denial means McRaney has prevailed in his effort to finally depose witnesses and present evidence to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi in his claim about NAMB’s “intentional interference with business relationships, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress” related to his termination by the BCMD. NAMB filed its appeal to the Supreme Court after losing 0-3 in a hearing by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court, and then failing 8-9 in a request for a full hearing by that same court. The close vote in the second ruling was wrapped in controversy due to false filings by NAMB and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, also an SBC entity, who claimed the SBC (and consequently NAMB) has a hierarchical governing relationship with Baptist … [Read more...]