It's amazing how the Watchtower Society uses "freedom of religion" as a legal protection to violate the religious freedoms of others. The punishment for leaving their religion is so severe that many people stay to avoid being cut off from their family and friends. These people don't really have freedom of religion.
The courts are generally reluctant to interfere in the internal dealings of a church (they might make an exception in extreme cases like child abuse) so the Watchtower Society has a lot of freedom to use intimidation and the threat of breaking family ties to enforce its own will. They can always argue that person in question willingly subjected themselves to the authority of the Watchtower Society by getting baptised.
I don't like this, but it doesn't look like it will change in the near future.
This has already been discussed extensively on this site. I don't want to beat a dead horse. I just want to explore what seems to be a small weakness in the Watchtower Society's legal position. I'm not planning on suing or encouraging others to do so. I'm curious and think its wise to consider possible weaknesses, especially if the legal climate changes in the future.
The Watchtower position assumes that a Jehovah's Witness can leave their religion at any time, even if the consequences for doing so are severe. You could even draw the conclusion that if the Watchtower Society wishes to enforce their will on their members, they have a minimum responsibility to at least not interfere with a member's right to resign.
I have learned from personal experience that it is much more difficult to resign from Jehovah's Witnesses than many people think. My experiences have caused me to wonder if the Watchtower Society is living up to their minimum responsibilities to not interfere with an individual's right to choose or reject a religion. If not, then it could put their entire legal defense concerning "willing membership" in jeopardy.
Of course, anybody who wants to resign from Jehovah's Witnesses can just send a disassociation letter. I have done so, yet I'm not entirely satisfied. I feel that the Watchtower Society has some responsibility to do something about it. I can send as many letters as I want, but this doesn't mean that my right to withdraw my membership is being respected.
It appears that the Ex Mormon community has given this issue more thought than us Ex Jehovah's Witnesses. I have done some reading and it appears the Ex Mormons have a belief that the Mormon church has a legal responsibility to respect their letters of resignation, remove them from their membership lists and actually inform the person that this has happened. This makes sense, but I don't know if there are any strong legal precedents to support this, other than vague references to the Bill of Rights and a person's right to freedom of (or from) religion.
I have sent a letter of disassociation and multiple follow up letters, but haven't received any response or indication that the Watchtower Society has done anything about it. I am being shunned, but this could just be a result of the personal letters I sent. I expect that an announcement was probably made (or maybe not, because my letter contained some legal threats), but it seems that I should have a right to be informed about this or at least informed that my name has been removed from their membership lists.
I know the Watchtower Society is reluctant to send correspondence to an apostate like me. They don't want to have a paper trail that can be used against them in a lawsuit. However, it seems that this also weakens their legal defense that membership in their religion is voluntary.
I have also heard about people being disfellowshipped without their knowledge. I wonder what the legal consequences are of that. It seems like they would have to inform the person in order for their relationship to be properly terminated.
I look forward to your opinions or any information you might have. I should state that I'm not qualified to give legal advice and I'll assume the same for any who wish to respond.