Scotusblog has the scoop here. Anglican Curmudgeon has his thoughts here.
Gauss v. The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America
Docket: 11-1139
Issue(s): Whether the First Amendment, as interpreted by this Court in Jones v. Wolf, requires state civil courts to enforce an alleged trust imposed on local church property by provisions in denominational documents, regardless of whether those provisions would be legally cognizable under generally applicable rules of state property and trust law.
Issue(s): Whether the First Amendment, as interpreted by this Court in Jones v. Wolf, requires state civil courts to enforce an alleged trust imposed on local church property by provisions in denominational documents, regardless of whether those provisions would be legally cognizable under generally applicable rules of state property and trust law.
Certiorari stage documents:
In addition, the Timberridge Presbyterian Church also is petitioning the Supreme Court on Thursday:
Timberridge Presbyterian Church, Inc. v. Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, Inc.
Docket: 11-1101
Issue(s): Whether the “neutral principles” doctrine embodied in the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment permits imposition of a trust on church property when the creation of that trust violates the state’s property and trust laws.
Certiorari stage documents:
Timberridge Presbyterian Church, Inc. v. Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, Inc.
Docket: 11-1101
Issue(s): Whether the “neutral principles” doctrine embodied in the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment permits imposition of a trust on church property when the creation of that trust violates the state’s property and trust laws.
Issue(s): Whether the “neutral principles” doctrine embodied in the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment permits imposition of a trust on church property when the creation of that trust violates the state’s property and trust laws.
6 comments:
What are the chances this petition for certiorari to be granted? Most are denied and seeing that most of the Supreme Courts of various states in which this matter came before have ruled against the partitioner(s)it seems unlikely that certiorari will be granted.
Now is a good time to pray, Anon.
bb
Anon 1626: The arithmetic odds of any particular petition for certiorari being granted are very low - in the 1 per cent range. The Court grants about 80-90 petitions each term, and denies roughly a hundred times as many. A number of petitions have already been granted for next term so the slots left for more are limited. Having said this, the Justices and their clerks do a very good job of screening every case and some on their face have a better chance than others. I always have the impression that they like to mold their calendar in a way that gives them some interesting variety in the upcoming term. There haven't been many religious institution cases lately and they might find the issues attractive. On the other hand, these particular cases are heavily controlled by state law, although the advocates for petitioners have done their best to catch the Court's attention by urging that there are underlying federal constitutional issues.
Scout
I think the CT law, which expressly applies to TEC, presnts the most interesting First Amendment question. But we shall see. Hard to predict.
Arthur
We should get the results of the 14 June conference on Monday.
Scout
The Supreme Court has declined cert in both Gauss and Timberridge.
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