Hi Siddhashunyata: Yes, the 1st Amendment is held in high regard in the US Courts. Religions are also subject to public interests, to name a few, such as:
The Church of Satan headquartered in San Francisco cannot have human sacrifices as its religious ritual.
The World Wide Church of God, that was placed into Receivership in California because religions cannot defraud people without State sanctions.
The RICO laws are now being used in Florida to nail the Roman Catholic Church regarding its handling of pedophiles.
In Oregon, the State was able to uphold the firing of an American Indian public school teacher because of his use of illegal peyote, a long held Indian Tribal religous ritual.
In Wisconsin, there were some excellent case law arising out of the need to balance the public good against private religious beliefs.
Cases of excommunicaton or disfellowshipping have reached the courts and where libel is established, religions have lost.
Example: IN the 1950s the JWs used to announce: "So-and-so" is disfellowshipped for drunkeness or adultry. I understand that various lawsuits forced them to simplify this in the 1970s to: "So-and-so" is disfellowshipped for conduct 'unbecoming' a Christian. Further litigation forced the JWs once again to reduce this to now say: "So-and-so" is disfellowshipped. The basis for the DF, however, is still discussed in a week or two after the DF, and therefore, still implies the conduct - and has potential for libel.
Also, if an organization discriminates by applying the unique laws of church government differently for different people, there may be a civil cause of action there as well.
I personally believe that Bill has a case for libel and other civil actions, such as harassment of a 'whistle-blower' with respect to USC mandated reporting of child molesters.
What an attorney advises him, however, is another matter. In any event, the court of public opinion will have its day as well when the Dateline program airs.