Suing God

Move over, Job. A former Nebraska state senator tried to sue God "seeking a permanent injunction to prevent God from committing acts of violence such as earthquakes and tornadoes." The case was thrown out because "you can't sue God if you can't serve the papers on him." Ilya Somin isn't sure about this legal reasoning:

 

...if God exists, he must be omnipresent and omnipotent. Therefore, it logically follows that he can be served with court papers anywhere; after all he is present everywhere in the universe at all times. Indeed, service of process is a pointless formality when it comes to God. Since the Lord is omniscient as well as omnipotent, he surely knew about Senator Chambers' lawsuit even before any process servers were sent out. Indeed, he must have foreseen that Chambers would file the suit long before Chambers himself knew that he would do it. As Chambers himself has pointed out, "Since God knows everything, God has notice of this lawsuit."

A better technical legal ground for dismissing lawsuits against God might be lack of redressability, which is a requirement of standing under federal law and (I presume) Nebraska law as well. If the plaintiff's injury can't be redressed by a judicial ruling, he doesn't have standing to file a suit. Since God is omnipotent, the judicial injunction Chambers seeks can't possibly force him to do anything he doesn't want to do anyway. Thus, no redessability and no standing.