The Church of Scientology enacted the Fair Game policy in 1967, which stated that suppressive persons (SPs) "[m]ay be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."
"Cancelling" Fair Game
The next year Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard ordered that the term "fair game" stop being used because it was poor for public relations. However, he also explicitly clarified that the dropping of the term "does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP."Despite Hubbard's specific wording, the Church's own website claims that "'Fair Game' was canceled in 1968" and insists that "all it meant was that those expelled from the Church could no longer take advantage of the internal ecclesiastical support and justice procedures churches of Scientology provide to resolve disputes and upsets among parishioners." (Scientology.org)
In the 1980s, the Church of Scientology argued in court multiple times that the harassing practices in question were a core belief of the religion of Scientology and, thus, should be constitutionally protected.
What Fair Game Entails
The Church of Scientology insists that lawbreaking is specifically against their ethics and is punishable within their community. However, this policy still leaves open a wide range of legal yet highly morally questionable activities including harassment, intimidation, public humiliation, surveillance, frivolous lawsuits, and character assassination.Critics commonly associate a variety of alleged illegal activities to the Fair Use policy as well, including death threats, espionage, kidnapping, trespassing, and theft.
