A law aimed at abuse has now become a weapon against faith

America’s genius has always been its willingness to protect unpopular expression, including fringe religions

- ALAN DERSHOWITZ

IAN WEST Associated Press

NICOLE DAEDONE, left, and Rachel Cherwitz were part of the wellness company OneTaste.

ON MY OFFICE wall hangs a framed copy of George Washington's 1790 letter to the Hebrew congregation of Newport, R.I. In it, America’s first president promised that the new nation would “give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” It was more than a gesture of tolerance. It was a radical pledge that this country would never criminalize belief.

More than two centuries later, that promise is being tested again — this time not in a church or a synagogue, but in a federal courtroom in Brooklyn.

In the United States vs. Cherwitz et al., federal prosecutors cited the Trafficking Victims Protection Act — a law designed to stop modern slavery — to convict members of a spiritual community called OneTaste. The group’s alleged crime? Leading a practice known as “orgasmic meditation,” which the government claimed amounted to “forced labor” because some participants were psychologically manipulated. No allegations of violence. No threats. No physical restraint. The prosecutors simply argued that influence and belief — that elusive, human web of persuasion and trust — was itself coercion.