From the North County Times California-
Lawyers for a Newport Beach church whose split with the Episcopal Diocese sparked a legal tussle over the parish property asked the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week to decide issues of religious freedom they have raised.
St. James Anglican Church won its first round against the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in 2005, when Orange County Superior Court Judge David Velasquez, during pretrial motions, sided with its claim to the property and tossed the diocese's lawsuit.
But an appeal court and the California Supreme Court disagreed.
The state's highest court held that the property was held in trust for the larger church, and the congregation has no right to it if it is no longer affiliated with the diocese.
Lawyers for the congregation said it may be October before they learn whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take on the case.
The petition asks the Supreme Court to decide whether, under the U.S. Constitution, certain hierarchical religious denominations can make the claim that property in the name of a congregation is held in trust for the larger church.
That flies in the face of normal rules of property ownership that apply to everyone else, said John Eastman, a constitutional law scholar, who joined the team to pursue the Supreme Court appeal.
"We will be arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that the California Supreme Court's interpretation of state law has violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," Eastman said.
"The First Amendment says Congress shall pass no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Even though it says Congress, that amendment has been interpreted as applicable to the states as well," the scholar said.
More here-
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/06/28/faith/doc4a47e37f2fb6f914219462.txt
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