Obama Administration Supports Vatican Immunity in Child Rape Cases

In yet another disappointment from the Obama administration - why do the disappointments seem to out number the positives? - has filed a brief before the U. S. Supreme Court supporting the Vatican's disingenuous claim that priests and bishops in the United States do not work for and are not under the control of the Pope. Obviously, this argument is specious on its face - especially since only the Pope can appoint and remove bishops and only the Vatican can defrock priests. On its face, what the Roman Catholic Church has done in the cover up and negligent transfer of predatory priests falls directly within the scope of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act of 1976. That law includes several situations where a foreign power is NOT entitled to immunity. Specifically, 28 USC § 1605, reads in relevant part as follows:
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(a) A foreign state shall not be immune from the jurisdiction of courts of the United States or of the States in any case—
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(5) not otherwise encompassed in paragraph (2) above,in which money damages are sought against a foreign state for personal injury or death, or damage to or loss of property, occurring in the United States and caused by the tortious act or omission of that foreign state or of any official or employee of that foreign state while acting within the scope of his office or employment
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Seems pretty clear cut under any application of normal English, but not so according to Obama's solicitor general. The folks at Yahoo News are reporting as follows concerning the Obama administration's backing of the Vatican's preposterous argument that the Pope has not control over U.S. Catholic clergy:

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The unnamed plaintiff, who cited the Holy See and several other parties as defendants, argued the Vatican should be held responsible for transferring the priest to Oregon and letting him serve there despite previous accusations he had abused children in Chicago and in Ireland.
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The solicitor general's office, which defends the position of President Barack Obama's administration before the Supreme Court, said the Ninth Circuit improperly found the case to be an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a 1976 federal law that sets limits on when other countries can face lawsuits in US courts.
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[T]he Vatican plans to argue that Catholic dioceses are run as separate entities from the Holy See, and that the only authority that the pontiff has over bishops around the world is a religious one, according to Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's US attorney.
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Anyone want some Pacific coast property in Arizona? It's about as credible a claim as that put out by the Vatican.