Landmark First Amendment Religion Litigation?

Volokh, Eugene VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu
Fri Jan 26 14:53:23 PST 2007


	I'd love to hear more details. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu 
> [mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of 
> Newsom Michael
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 2:52 PM
> To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
> Subject: RE: Landmark First Amendment Religion Litigation?
> 
> Some of the other cases come out the other way, if I remember 
> them correctly. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
> [mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of 
> Volokh, Eugene
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 5:32 PM
> To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
> Subject: RE: Landmark First Amendment Religion Litigation?
> 
> 	Well, I firmly endorse a secular norm of disliking Communism.
> Nonetheless, unless I'm mistaken the Milivojevich Court held 
> *in favor* of the Yugoslav (and I take it 
> Communist-influenced) hierarchy.  The hierarchy tried to 
> remove the American bishop; the Illinois Supreme Court 
> invalidated the removal "as 'arbitrary' because the 
> proceedings resulting in those actions were not conducted 
> according to the Illinois Supreme Court's interpretation of 
> the Church's constitution and penal code, and that the 
> Diocesan reorganization was invalid because it was beyond the 
> scope of the Mother Church's authority to effectuate such 
> changes without Diocesan approval."  The Supreme Court 
> reversed the Illinois decision, and the Communist-influenced 
> hierarchy won.  That seems to suggest that the Court was 
> following a norm of deference to the hierarchical 
> authorities, whether the heads were under the influence of 
> Communists or not.  Am I missing something here?
> 
> 	Eugene
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
> > [mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Newsom 
> > Michael
> > Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 2:25 PM
> > To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
> > Subject: RE: Landmark First Amendment Religion Litigation?
> > 
> > That is all well and good, but I have the sense that the Court 
> > nonetheless applied secular norms in some post-Wolf cases, indeed 
> > perhaps going so far as to constitutionalize a Congregationalist 
> > polity even in hierarchical churches (be they Episcopalian or 
> > Presbyterian in their polity).  If this isn't the application of 
> > secular norms, then what is it?
> > 
> > As to the post-Wolf cases, it is difficult to argue that 
> they can be 
> > easily reconciled, there being a real difference on the precise 
> > question of secular norms.  I think that the law is anything but 
> > clear, post-Wolf.
> > 
> > One more point, the property dispute cases involving 
> Eastern Orthodox 
> > Churches certainly reflect secular norms -- a dislike of communism, 
> > for openers.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > 
> > ----Original Message-----
> > From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
> > [mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Volokh, 
> > Eugene
> > Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 4:40 PM
> > To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
> > Subject: RE: Landmark First Amendment Religion Litigation?
> > 
> > "[W]hether or not there is room for "marginal civil court review " 
> > under the narrow rubrics of "fraud" or "collusion"
> > when church tribunals act in bad faith for secular purposes, no 
> > "arbitrariness" exception in the sense of an inquiry whether the 
> > decisions of the highest ecclesiastical tribunal of a hierarchical 
> > church complied with church laws and regulations is consistent with 
> > the constitutional mandate that civil courts are bound to 
> accept the 
> > decisions of the highest judicatories of a religious 
> organization of 
> > hierarchical polity on matters of discipline, faith, internal 
> > organization, or ecclesiastical rule, custom, or law. For 
> civil courts 
> > to analyze whether the ecclesiastical actions of a church 
> judicatory 
> > are in that sense "arbitrary " must inherently entail 
> inquiry into the 
> > procedures that canon or ecclesiastical law supposedly requires the 
> > church judicatory to follow, or else in to the substantive 
> criteria by 
> > which they are supposedly to decide the ecclesiastical question.
> > But this is exactly the inquiry that the First Amendment prohibits; 
> > recognition of such an exception would undermine the 
> general rule that 
> > religious controversies are not the proper subject of civil court 
> > inquiry, and that a civil court must accept the ecclesiastical 
> > decisions of church tribunals as it finds them. Watson 
> itself requires 
> > our conclusion in its rejection of the analogous argument that 
> > ecclesiastical decisions of the highest church judicatories 
> need only 
> > be accepted if the subject matter of the dispute is within their 
> > "jurisdiction.""  Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v.
> > Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696, 713 (1976).
> > 
> > 
> > ________________________________
> > 
> > 	From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
> > [mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of 
> > Lawyer2974 at aol.com
> > 	Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 1:24 PM
> > 	To: religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
> > 	Subject: Re: Landmark First Amendment Religion Litigation?
> > 	
> > 	
> > 	In a message dated 1/26/2007 4:20:12 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
> > mnewsom at law.howard.edu writes:
> > 
> > 		I will be the first to admit that I may have 
> misread Jones v. Wolf, 
> > but "neutral principles of law" is a rather capacious concept, and 
> > don't forget Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of 
> Manila and the 
> > insistence there of the right of the Court to provide a 
> remedy where 
> > there was "fraud, collusion, or arbitrariness" in the proceedings 
> > before the religious tribunal.
> > 
> > 		 
> > 
> > 	Jones v. Wolf sets forth one means by which a state may 
> > constitutionally chose to resolve property disputes..it 
> does not stand 
> > ofr a general proposition applicable to the ministerial 
> exception or 
> > other aspects of ecclesial life.....case law has specifically held 
> > that the "arbitrariness" referred to in Gonzalez  does not give a 
> > court the jurisdiction to interpret an ecclesiaastical 
> organization's 
> > ecclesiastical process
> > 	 
> > 	Donald C. Clark, Jr.
> > 	2333 Waukegan Road
> > 	Suite 160
> > 	Bannockburn, Illinois 60015
> > 	847-236-0900
> > 	847-236-0909 (fax)
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