High Court Splits 4-3 Ordering Religious Sect to Get Comp Coverage

By Sherri Okamoto, WorkCompCentral ReporterA narrowly divided Montana Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a rural religious sect that does not believe in personal property or the payment of wages must provide workers' compensation coverage for members of the commune who participate in commercial-construction projects.The four-justice majority said that the state's requirement that a Hutterite commune called the Big Sky Colony buy insurance was not an unconstitutional infringement upon the collective's free exercise of religion.At the center of the dispute in Big Sky Colony et a...