A ruling from the Maine state Supreme Court has concluded that judges can “limit” the constitutional rights of one parent in order to please the other parent, but that doesn’t really “infringe” on the first parent’s constitutional rights.
And the fight soon will before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ruling regarding the mother who has been forbidden from taking her daughter to a Christian church, or allowing her to associate with people from that church, because of her estranged boyfriend’s intense dislike for the Bible, comes in the case Emily A. Bickford v. Matthew A. Bradeen, where Bickford, the custodian parent, is being ordered to subject her beliefs and her constitutional right to deliver her beliefs to her daughter, to those beliefs, or lack therefore, of Bradeen.
“This opinion rejects the First Amendment right of a fit parent to raise her child consistent with her Christian faith,” said Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, whose organization is representing the mother.
“This opinion goes against other state court decisions involving custody in the context of religious free exercise rights and ignores precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court. We will ask the High Court to take this case and overrule the decision.”
The ruling insisted that the courts were right to turn over to Bradeen exclusive rights to impose religious values, or not, on the unmarried couple’s daughter.
“An allocation of rights to one parent inherently limits the authority of the other but doesn’t necessarily infringe upon the constitutional rights of either parent,” the Maine Supreme Court claimed in its soon-to-be-challenged decision.
The mother is banned by the courts from taking her daughter, now 13, to church, a religious organization or event, or to “expose” her to “religious philosophy or the Bible in general.”
The father had complained repeatedly in court that the daughter was being impacted by the well-known teachings of the Bible, of a Heaven and Hell, of a sinner’s choice to deny salvation through Jesus Christ and go there, and such.
The state court ruling affirmed a lower court’s demands that while Bickford is a fit parent with “no showing of harm to [the child] associated with a belief system that is rooted in the Bible,” it insisted on limited teachings about biblical concepts, including “Heaven, Hell, eternal salvation, angels, demons, and Christianity.”
That lower court claim, now affirmed by the state Supreme Court, insists that Bradeen has the authority to prohibit Bickford from taking their daughter to “any services, gatherings, or events associated with Calvary Shapel, whether and what material, literature, video, or other messaging associated with, or created or published by, Calvary Chapel she reviews, and whether she associates or communicates with any member of Calvary Chapel other than Ms. Bickford.”
Since December 2024, Bradeen has refused every request for their daughter to have any exposure to those biblical teachings.
“(Jesus Christ) is the very heartbeat of our home.”
But due to an unconstitutional custody order, Emily Bickford has been prohibited from even taking her daughter to church since December 2024. We are fighting for Emily’s religious liberty and her right to raise her daughter… pic.twitter.com/iXbHdQsf3p
— Liberty Counsel (@libertycounsel) June 3, 2026
A Maine judge’s court order prevented a mother from taking her own daughter to Christmas church services. The judge barred Emily Bickford from reading the Bible to her 12-year-old daughter or taking her to church for over a year!
Liberty Counsel contends that the girl’s father… pic.twitter.com/yhn8m5hush
— CBN News (@CBNNews) December 29, 2025
Staver said, “Somehow the Maine Supreme Court thinks this court order does not violate her rights as a fit parent and her Free Exercise rights under the First Amendment. This disappointing opinion from the Maine Supreme Court prohibits Bickford from taking her child to a Christian church because the child’s father objects to its biblical teachings. By depriving one parent their right to instill their religious views into their child and granting sole authority to the other parent fails to give proper protection to parental rights and religious freedom under the First Amendment. The implications of this opinion pose a serious threat to religious freedom. Liberty Counsel will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to ultimately decide this case.”
The pastor of the Calvary Chapel there, Travi Carey, confirms that the church teaches the Bible “verse by verse, chapter by chapter.”
The Maine court justices appeared to be offended that the Bible includes lessons about the “Second Coming of Christ,” the tribulation and persecution of Christians prophesied under the Antichrist, and more.
The justices confirmed they rejected the arguments that the lower court used unconstitutional judgments regarding the beliefs of Christianity, or that it was disrespectful by allowing testimony from a so-called expert on “cults,” who described the Christian church as a “closed social system.”
WND previously has reported when the lower court judge concluded the custodial mother “is a fit parent EXCEPT for the fact that she is a Christian.”
The war erupted over the non-custodial father’s opposition to Christianity, specifically demanding to ban his daughter’s attendance at a Christian church.
The lower court went to extremes, ordering that the daughter “cannot attend ANY Christmas, Easter, or any other Christian event or celebration at ANY church, including any wedding, funeral, or even hospital visits with anyone associated with Calvary Chapel.”
Staver noted, “The judge mocked Ava and Emily’s faith by purposefully refusing to capitalize the word ‘God’ — something I have never seen.”
Staver described the lower court’s ruling as reeking of “hostility.”
Liberty Counsel explained the background: “Matt Bradeen never married Emily after she became pregnant over a dozen years ago. The relationship ended before Ava was even born. Emily had primary custody of Ava, and Matt had visitation rights. Ava and Emily had been attending Calvary Chapel, an evangelical Christian church in Portland, ME, for 3½ years. Ava informed her father last year that she was excited to be baptized. But whereas most parents would be overjoyed, Matt found an ACLU judge and flew in a Marxist former sociology professor from California to testify that Calvary Chapel (and any church that believes the Bible) are ‘cults’ that cause psychological harm to children.”
