Case Categories: 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.

• Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton (2017)

  In Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton (2017), church-related nonprofits argued they were exempt from ERISA pension rules under First Amendment church-...

• Baker v. Fales (1820)

  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)

  Baker v. Nachtrieb (1856) does not mention the First Amendment, but it furthered religious free exercise by sustaining an agreement between a religious society...

• Beatty v. Kurtz (1853)

  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...

• Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012)

  Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC (2012) was the first time the Court used a “ministerial exception” as First Amendment basis for rejecting an employment discrimination...

• Jones v. Wolf (1979)

  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...

• Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952)

  In Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952), the Supreme Court ruled that a New York law exercised unconstitutional legislative interference in the freedom of...

• Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States (1890)

  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...

• Maryland and Virginia Eldership of the Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg (1970)

  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...

• Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico (1908)

  Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico (1908) does not directly mention the First Amendment, but it illuminates the...

• Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser (1914)

  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...

• Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Vorrissey-Berru (2020)

  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...

• Permoli v. New Orleans (1845)

  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...

• Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church (1969)

  Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church (1969) denied courts the authority to interpret doctrine in...

• Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976)

  Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976) ruled that the First Amendment prevented the state from becoming entangled in hierarchical church...

• Smith v. Swormstedt (1853)

  Although church and state institutions operate separately under the First Amendment, government has intervened on internal church matters such as in Smith v....

• Terrett v. Taylor (1815)

  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...

• Trustees of Philadelphia Baptist Association v. Hart's Executors (1819)

  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...

• Trustees of the New Life in Christ Church v. City of Fredericksburg (2022)

  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...

• Watson v. Jones (1871)

  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...