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Why the seizure of such an enormous amount of the Church's literature when, as the District Court itself later declared, "a single false scientific, non-religious label claim is sufficient to support condemnation"?The answer to that question is virtually self-evident: by unlawfully confiscating a large amount of the accused's property (which they hope to destroy later), the FDA dictocrats impose extra-legal punishment, no matter what the judicial outcome of the case may be.

In their accounts of the raid, newspaper reporters, whom FDA had invited to accompany the raiders, obligingly referred to the Church not as a religious organization, but as a "pseudo-scientific cult".At a later date, the Washington Post, referring to the E-meters declared:

"The machines were used by the religious cult allegedly to cure a number of illnesses ranging from cancer to radiation burns from atomic bombs, according to testimony at the trial."  The story did not venture to estimate how many Scientologists were survivors of a nuclear war.Such a lapse in objective reporting is, of course, not at all unusual. In today's media, the naked truth is as rare as a naked nun (perhaps in our time, even rarer).FDA officials were fully aware, and the press should have been, that the Founding Church of Scientology had been duly incorporated on July 21, 19SS as a non-profit society and corporation under the laws of the District of Columbia.The Church's Creed, the body of doctrinal literature swept up by the raiders (and later filed by government lawyers as exhibits) make it plain to any reasonable person that Scientology is a religion.Motions by the Scientology lawyers to have the FDA action quashed on the grounds that it violated both the First and the Fourth Amendments were denied, first by District judge Luther W. Youngdahl and later (on a motion limited to written material) by District Judge Edward A. Tamm.

Four years ensued before the FDA charges were heard in court. When the case was finally brought to trial on April 3, 1967, the federal agency still maintained the fiction that they were not taking legal action against a Church. It was that bad old E-meter that was the defendant of record.According to FDA's complaint, the labelling for the meter (a term used to designate the whole range of Scientology literature) contained statements which "represent, suggest or imply" that the E-meter was adequate and effective for diagnosis, prevention, treatment, detection and elimination of a long list of human diseases, including arthritis, cancer, stomach ulcers and radiation from atomic bombs.

All of which was a monstrous lie. Nowhere in any Scientology publication was it ever remotely hinted that the E-meter could be used to treat anything. As delineated in a previous chapter, the instrument was developed to measure the intensity of facsimiles or mental-image pictures of past incidents during some stages in the process of auditing. As such, the meter is clearly a confessional aid and has never been used by ministers of the Church in any other way.Nevertheless, the first trial resulted in a general jury verdict for the government, and District Judge John J. Sirica ordered destruction of the seized E-meters, together with a quantity of the printed material.Attorneys for the Church immediately appealed the case, arguing that the E-meters were used only as part of a religious practice, to audit and process the mental and spiritual condition of adherents. Auditing was conducted within the church and anyone entering was on notice that it was a church. "It had a sign on the door, there is a chapel, there was a Sunday School; we married people, we had funerals."

To make sure that applicants for auditing understood that the procedure took place within a spiritual context, they were required to sign a release which stated in part:

"I understand fully and completely that the said purpose of said organizations and employed personnel, is based upon the practice of Scientology which I know to be a spiritual and religious guide intended to make persons more aware of themselves as spiritual beings, and not treating or diagnosing human ailments of body or mind, and not engaged in the teachings of medical arts or sciences..."

Anyone who was ill, declared the Scientologists, was referred to a medical doctor. If a person seeking help from Scientology appeared to be seriously ill, he was refused auditing until he did consult a physician and had his condition diagnosed and treated.

"Against this background," argued the Church's legal spokesmen, "it is impossible to say that the E-meter is intended for healing purposes, regardless of what impression might be gained from an isolated reading of literature."

In a two to one decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's verdict, ruling that the Founding Church of Scientology was indeed a bona fide religious organization.The Government, said the High Court's majority opinion, erred in 1963 when it confiscated the Church's E-meters, which were used "to diagnose the mental and spiritual condition" of a subject.The court also noted that the alleged labelling of the E-meters "is not a single readily digestible book or a collection of pamphlets obviously promotional in nature, but rather a vast array of the often obscure literature of Scientology".