Church Property and Governance
Courts have sometimes been called upon to consider religious freedom rights under the First Amendment in settling disputes over church property and governance.
Following is a list of Supreme Court cases involving church property and governance and First Amendment rights and concepts.
In Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton (2017), church-related
nonprofits argued they were exempt from ERISA pension rules under First
Amendment church-state separation.
Baker v. Fales (Mass. Supreme Court, 1820) illustrates some of the problems
that states with established churches faced prior to their abolition in
1833.
Baker v. Nachtrieb (1856) does not mention the First Amendment, but it
furthered religious free exercise by sustaining an agreement between a
religious society and its members.
The Supreme Court ruling in Beatty v. Kurtz (1853) is an example of
favoring church rights despite the First Amendment’s clause against
establishment of religion.
Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC (2012) was the first time the Court used a
“ministerial exception” as First Amendment basis for rejecting an
employment discrimination suit.
In Jones v. Wolf, 443 (1979), the Court ruled that, under the First
Amendment, a state could resolve church property disputes by applying
neutral principles of law.
In Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952), the Supreme Court ruled that
a New York law exercised unconstitutional legislative interference in the
freedom of religion.
In 1890, the Court ruled that Congress could dissolve the Mormon church
because of its practice of polygamy. That action is now considered a clear
violation of the First Amendment.
In Maryland and Virginia Eldership of the Churches of God v. Church of God
at Sharpsburg (1970) affirmed that in settling church disputes, courts do
not raise First Amendment concerns.
Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico
(1908) does not directly mention the First Amendment, but it illuminates
the establishment clause.
Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser (1914) said a religious order was
entitled to the estate of one of its deceased members, protecting the First
Amendment freedom of religion.
The Supreme Court in July 2020 upheld the termination of two teachers in
Catholic elementary schools in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v.
Vorissey-Berru, saying the First Amendment’s freedom of religion prevented
the government from interfering in church governance matters.
Permoli v. New Orleans (1845) shows the limits of the free exercise clause
of the First Amendment in the years before the Bill of Rights was applied
to the states.
Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull
Memorial Presbyterian Church (1969) denied courts the authority to
interpret doctrine in property disputes.
An early high court in Connecticut thought interfering with division of church property during a church split would be a kind of religious compulsion prohibited by the state constitutional provisions on religious freedom.
Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976) ruled that the
First Amendment prevented the state from becoming entangled in hierarchical
church decisions.
Although church and state institutions operate separately under the First
Amendment, government has intervened on internal church matters such as in
Smith v. Swormstedt (1853).
Terrett v. Taylor (1815) did not cite the First Amendment because it did
not apply to states at the time, but it was one of the most important
church-state cases in the 1800s.
Trustees of Philadelphia Baptist Association v. Hart’s Executors (1819) was
designed to keep courts out of the business of deciding matters of internal
church governance.
The Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal in which a Virginia church
argued that the government could not determine who was a minister or not in
denying the church a tax exemption for a minister residence.
Watson v. Jones (1871) said the Court would resolve church property
disputes on a basis other than church doctrine, furthering the goals of the
First Amendment.
