Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/396/367/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 04:25:38+00:00

Document:
Maryland and Virginia Eldership of Churches of God v.
Church of God at Sharpsburg, Inc.
Since state court's resolution of property dispute between church bodies was made on basis of state law that did not involve inquiry into religious doctrine, the appeal involves no substantial federal question.
254 Md. 162, 254 A.2d 162, appeal dismissed.
of property in violation of the First Amendment. Since, however, the Maryland court's resolution of the dispute involved no inquiry into religious doctrine, appellees' motion to dismiss is granted, and the appeal is dismissed for want of a substantial federal question.
Md.Ann.Code, Art. 23, §§ 256-270 (1966 Repl. Vol.).
"for further consideration in light of Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church. . . ."
MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, with whom MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS and MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL join, concurring.
"First Amendment values are plainly jeopardized when church property litigation is made to turn on the resolution by civil courts of controversies over religious doctrine and practice. If civil courts undertake to resolve such controversies in order to adjudicate the property dispute, the hazards are ever present of inhibiting the free development of religious doctrine and of implicating secular interests in matters of purely ecclesiastical concern. . . . [T]he [First] Amendment therefore commands civil courts to decide church property disputes without resolving underlying controversies over religious doctrine."
It follows that a State may adopt any one of various approaches for settling church property disputes so long as it involves no consideration of doctrinal matters, whether the ritual and liturgy of worship or the tenets of faith.
essential to the resolution of the controversy. In other words, the use of the Watson approach is consonant with the prohibitions of the First Amendment. Only if the appropriate church governing body can be determined without the resolution of doctrinal questions and without extensive inquiry into religious polity.
A third possible approach is the passage of special statutes governing church property arrangements in a manner that precludes state interference in doctrine. Such statutes must be carefully drawn to leave control of ecclesiastical polity, as well as doctrine, to church governing bodies. [Footnote 2/5] Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral, 344 U. S. 94 (1952).
"a religious congregation . . by the nature of its organization, is strictly independent of other ecclesiastical associations, and so far as church government is concerned, owes no fealty or obligation to any higher authority."
"the religious congregation . . . is but a subordinate member of some general church organization in which there are superior ecclesiastical tribunals with a general and ultimate power of control more or less complete, in some supreme judicatory over the whole membership of that general organization."
Id. at 80 U. S. 722. Except that "express terms" cannot be enforced if enforcement is constitutionally impermissible under Presbyterian Church. Any language in Watson, supra, at 80 U. S. 722-723, that may be read to the contrary must be disapproved. Only express conditions that may be effected without consideration of doctrine are civilly enforceable.
Except that civil tribunals may examine church rulings alleged to be the product of "fraud, collusion, or arbitrariness." Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop, 280 U. S. 1, 280 U. S. 16 (1929).
Thus, a State that normally resolves disputes over religious property by applying general principles of property law would have to use a different method in cases involving such provisions, perhaps that defined in Watson. By the same token, States following the Watson approach would have to find another ground for decision, perhaps the application of general property law, when identification of the relevant church governing body is impossible without immersion in doctrinal issues or extensive inquiry into church polity.
See, e.g., Goodson v. Northside Bible Church, 261 F.Supp. 99 (D.C.S.D.Ala.1966), aff'd, 387 F.2d 534 (C.A. 5th Cir.1967).

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