Thank you all for your thoughtful contributions to the issues; they were meant to be thought-provoking, not sugggestions for challenging a DF or a DA.
Looking_Glass:
My confusion with respect to this thread is that it appears that people want to use the courts to pursue claims or actions against JWs for being df'd or da'd. That is impractical and would clog up the judicial system more then it already is clogged up. As for libel and slander, people have a tendency to throw those words around to freely. It is much harder to prove.
1. The issue that I raised in my initial comment had no reference to, and made no suggestion of, pursuing actions against JWs or the WTS for being DF'd or DA'd. I referenced only the wording of the excommunication announcement, and its suggestion of near-godlessness as a possible slur against the subject. If the DF'd or DA'd person continued to consider him-/her- self a worshipper of Jehovah, having respect for the Bible and its teachings, such a public announcement refuting one's dedication to Jehovah might be psychically traumatic and depression-inducing.
I think the average person have an unrealistic view of the judicial system and how it works in the US.
2. My geographical point-of-reference is not so restricted. I am not in the U.S.; the laws of that land are, therefore, not my focus. To some degree, restrictions against random, slanderous statements are common to the legal systems of many countries. If there is no strict legal restriction against such within certain legal systems, there certainly exists a cultural repudiation of such conduct.
-V.