( January 22, 2026, 9:10 AM EST) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention Inc. (NAMB) waived its right to respond to a petition for writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by a former director of a general mission board of a regional cooperative missions and ministry organization seeking a ruling on church autonomy decisions after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority upheld dismissal of his defamation lawsuit....