By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor WASHINGTON (LBM) – Will McRaney, whose lawsuit claims the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention interfered to cause his 2015 firing as executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware and to prevent him from being hired by other ministries, has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to overturn a 2-1 decision against his case by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (issued Sept. 9, 2025 and revised Oct. 28, 2025). Two of the judges on the circuit court panel, Andrew Oldham (appointed by Donald J. Trump) and Priscilla Richman (a George W. Bush appointee), concluded that McRaney’s lawsuit forces the court to commit an “unconstitutional violation of church autonomy.” However, the third member of that panel, Irma Carrillo Ramirez (named to the federal appeals bench by Joseph R. Biden), dissented, writing that the principles raised by McRaney “do not implicate matters of faith and doctrine” and so he is “entitled to continue pursuing his secular claims regarding NAMB’s pre- and post-termination conduct.” Her opinion aligns with McRaney’s Jan. 8, 2026, appeal to SCOTUS that states, “Employing the … [Read more...]