Wright & Schulte Providing Pro Bono Legal Representation to 15,000 Amish Individuals

Attorneys Rick Schulte and Steve Behnke have provided pro bono legal representation to 15,000 Amish individuals in Adams County, Indiana for several years. Nearly two years ago, the Adams County Sewer District sent letters to several of these Amish families compelling them to connect to its newly built sewer system. The Amish reject technologies that violate their religious embrace of self sufficiency and living a life focused on God rather than this world. A municipal sewer system requires use of the electrical grid and connecting to the sewer system, both in direct violation of these core Amish religious tenets.

The State of Indiana and United States Constitutions mandate that government not pass laws that violate one’s religious practice and beliefs. The Amish practice their religion in the way they live every day of their lives. Attorneys Rick Schulte and Steve Behnke worked tirelessly in federal court to protect the Amish from the Sewer District’s encroachment on their religion and way of life. After nearly two years of litigation we are happy to report the that the Amish of Adams County, Indiana will not be required to hook up to the public sewer system.

This is the second religious freedom case Attorneys Schulte and Behnke have taken on at no charge for the Amish, after also working with Amish families in Shelby County, Ohio in 2019.

Attorneys Schulte and Behnke, along with Attorney Dennis Mulvihill, have taken a third pro bono case for the Amish, this time in Lenawee County, Michigan. They have partnered with the ACLU in the fight to protect the religious rights of the Amish to live and practice their religion as their conscience dictates and in a way that harms no one.

These attorneys have worked many hundreds of hours, pro bono, to work for the Amish and are proud to protect their religion and way of life from government interference.