News Release
For Immediate Release: 11.11.24
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Supreme Court Asked to Protect Right of Religious Organizations to Operate Without Government Interference
First Liberty Institute petitions the Supreme Court in key religious liberty case with implications for all faith-based organizations.
Washington, DC—Attorneys for First Liberty Institute and Greenberg Traurig LLP today asked the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse a lower court decision that forced Bethesda University to include board members who do not follow their firmly held, religious beliefs.
You can read the petition here.
“How religious organizations choose to operate is a sacred right protected by the First Amendment,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Secular courts are not competent to evaluate the religious character of religious organizations. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that the Constitution protects the independence of religious organizations to choose their own leaders, and we ask it to do so once again in this case.”
“There should be no doubt that religious institutions—not judges—choose how to fulfill their religious missions,” said Dominic Draye, co-chair of the appellate practice at Greenberg Traurig LLP. “The First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering with the autonomy of religious organizations and entangling itself in religious disputes.”
Bethesda University is a Pentecostal institution that requires its Board members to share its religious faith and to act consistently with its Pentecostal beliefs. Consistent with these requirements, Bethesda removed purported Board members who were not Pentecostal. Nonetheless, a California state court claimed it could apply “neutral principles” to determine the religious qualifications for the university’s board, thus allowing one religious faction to usurp control over the other. In 1871, in the case of Watson v. Jones, the Supreme Court said that it would, “lead to the total subversion of . . . religious bodies if any one aggrieved by one of their decisions could appeal to the secular courts and have them reversed.”
In the petition, Bethesda’s attorneys argue that lower courts require clarification from the Supreme Court on the circumstances requiring so-called “ecclesiastical abstention.” Some courts abstain from all but property disputes, which is the traditional rule, while others wade into controversies—like Bethesda’s—that involve a determination of religious membership or good standing. The petition explains that the latter approach “places a great many religious institutions at risk of judicial intrusion into matters theological.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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