Carroll v. Alberts

How later courts describe this case

• First Amendment free exercise clause does not bar imposition of tort liability for religiously motivated activity which amounts to a breach of physician-patient confidentiality
• “society is entitled to every person’s evidence in order that the truth may be discovered”
• “the First Amendment prohibits civil courts from intervening in disputes concerning religious doctrine, discipline, faith, or internal organization”
• “First Amendment prohibits civil courts from intervening in disputes concerning religious doctrine, discipline, faith, or internal organization”
• “It is clear that the assessment of an individual’s qualifications to be a minister, and the appointment and retirement of ministers, are ecclesiastical matters entitled to constitutional protection against judicial or other State interference”
• “all physicians owe their patients a duty, for violation of which the law provides a remedy, not to disclose without the patient’s consent medical information about the patient, except to meet a serious danger to the patient or others”
• "The courts that have imposed on physicians a duty of confidentiality and have recognized a cause of action to enforce that duty have grounded their decisions on the determination that public policy favors the protection of a patient's right to confidentiality"
• declaring physician's duty not to disclose patient's medical information