Establishment Clause

Alabama Supreme Court Upholds Methodist Church’s Property Rights Amid Disaffiliation Dispute

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The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, dismissing a lawsuit by 44 Methodist churches seeking to disaffiliate over doctrinal disputes about human sexuality while retaining their properties. The court’s decision, based on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, underscores the limitations of civil courts in resolving ecclesiastical issues, leaving the churches to navigate the UMC’s internal processes for resolution.

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Pepperdine Caruso Law Hosts 2024 Nootbaar Fellows Workshop and Conference on “Charting the Future of Church and State”

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  Photos:  Courtesy of Pepperdine University   Pepperdine Caruso Law Hosts 2024 Nootbaar Fellows Workshop and Conference on “Charting the Future of Church and State” This article originally appears at https://law.pepperdine.edu/surf-report/posts/pepperdine-caruso-law-hosts-2024-nootbaar-fellows-workshop-conference-future-church-state.htm n February 7-9, Pepperdine Caruso Law hosted the third

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7th Circuit Rules Challengers to Ministerial Housing Exemption Lacked Standing

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On November 13, 2014, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an atheist group challenging a tax-exempt housing benefit only available to clergy lacked standing to bring the suit because members of the atheist group could not demonstrate that they had suffered an injury as a result of the clergy tax-exemption.

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States Rights and the Religion Clauses: Examining the North Carolina Resolution

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This week, two members of the North Carolina House of Representatives submitted a resolution which would declare that “the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” In other words, the legislation declared that that the state could make its own laws about religion and the federal government would not be able to stop them. Although the resolution is not likely to be approved, it does deserve some serious examination as it reflects a common argument arising in the religious right that the Establishment Clause does not apply to the states.

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Michael Newdow – Question to Justice Scalia: Does the Establishment Clause Permit the Disregard of Devout Catholics?

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Dr. Michael Newdow, an attorney and physician famous for his litigation on church-state issues from an atheist perspective, and and previous article contributor to ReligiousLiberty.TV, has now published an important law review article for the Capital University Law Review that discusses the

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