BOSTON -- A judge has rejected the Archdiocese of Boston's argument that the more than 500 sexual abuse lawsuits against it should be dismissed because they violate the First Amendment's separation of church and state.

According to the Boston Globe, on Feb. 19, Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney ruled the lawsuits should proceed toward trial because the cases will address the alleged actions of the priests and their supervisors, but not religious principles, such as church doctrine.

"If the court were to recognize the defendants' sweeping church autonomy doctrine ... the result would be that church representatives could exercise all the rights and privileges the secular law affords yet not be burdened by any of the essential civil laws that protect the safety of all members of society, particularly children," Sweeney wrote.

Sweeney's decision "puts the church in the same shoes as other individuals and other corporations," said Jeffrey A. Newman, a lawyer for alleged victims.

Newman expects the archdiocese will appeal the decision sometime within 30 days.

The archdiocese wanted to dismiss the civil suits claiming a legal argument was necessary to satisfy its insurance carriers it was fighting the lawsuits.

The archdiocese brought in Colorado lawyer and First Amendment expert L. Martin Nussbaum to argue that the alleged victims could not claim church officials had supervised the priests negligently. Examining the relationship between priests and their supervisors in civil court violates the constitutional freedom of religion, he said.