This document discusses religious organizations and the law under the American constitutional system. It summarizes that the First Amendment protects both free exercise of religion and prohibits establishment of religion. There are three key areas of constitutional consideration: free exercise, establishment, and separation of church and state. Religious groups organize themselves both internally according to beliefs and through legal structures to receive benefits. Disputes over religious property led to Supreme Court cases establishing groups must be treated equally under law but also differently due to religious nature.

1. RELIGION AND THE
AMERICAN
CONSTITUTIONAL
EXPERIMENT
Chapter 11
Religious Organizations and the Law

2. Religion and the Law

Courts and commentators frequently break the
First Amendment into two parts:
 Free
exercise
 No establishment

Instead, they should be viewing the religion
provisions of the First Amendment as working
together, animated by the underlying six
principles of religious liberty.

3. Areas of Constitutional
Investigation

1.
2.
3.
The three areas of constitutional investigation
are:
The free exercise clause
The establishment clause
The notion that there must be space between
religious organizations and the civil
government.

4. Religious Polity and Structures

1.
2.
Religious groups organize themselves in two
important ways simultaneously:
Religious groups voluntarily structure
themselves internally in ways that conform to
their religious beliefs.
Religious groups are required to structure
themselves in legally sanctioned form to
enjoy the benefits of legal status.

5. Religious Structures

Polity generally refers to the manner in which
individual believers from a religious body.

Since the 19th century the Supreme Court has
suggested that there are two forms of religious
bodies:
1.
2.
Congregational
Hierarchical

6. Legal Structures

A religious organization has a constitutional right
to define itself as a legal entity but the
boundaries of that right are ill defined.

Religious groups need proper legal status:
 to
enter binding contracts
 to sue and be sued
 to hold real property
 to limit their liability

7. Religious Property Disputes


The Supreme Court’s earliest cases on religion
were based on federal common law, not on the
First Amendment directly.
Two themes emerged from church property
cases:
1.
2.
Religious groups must be treated equally with
other legal associations.
Religious groups must be treated differently
from other organizations.

8. Equal Treatment (1815-1914)






Terrett v. Taylor (1815)
Goesele v. Bimeler (1852)
Baker v. Nachtrieb (1856)
Speidel v. Henrici (1887)
Schwartz v. Duss (1902)
Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser (1914)

9. Deference (1872-1976)







Watson v. Jones (1872)
Bouldin v. Alexander (1872)
Gonzales v. Roman Catholic Archbishop (1929)
Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952)
Presbyterian Church v. Hull Church (1969)
Maryland and Virginia Eldership of Churches of
God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg (1969)
Serbian Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976)

10. Neutral Principles (1979-)

The Court has defined the boundaries in which
civil courts may operate rather than first
defining the scope of the right possessed by
the religious groups themselves.

Jones v. Wolf (1979)

11. Employment, Taxation, and More

The lack of definition of the rights of religious
organizations leads to difficulties in a number
of areas besides church property:
1.
2.
3.
Disputes within the employment context
Questions about how and when religious
organizations can partner with the government
in providing social services
Whether a government may or must grant tax
benefits.

12. Employment

In the previous court cases, the constitutional
principle that religious organizations are
entitled to manage their own internal affairs
without government interference prevailed.

In addition to the constitutional guarantees in
employment cases, legislatures often exempt
religious employers from civil rights laws in
hiring.

13. Social Services

The question of the extent to which
government may partner with religious
organizations in providing social services has
become increasingly important.

Based on precedents, the legislative and
executive branches have recently been
expanding the collaboration between religiousbased organizations and government.

14. Taxation

Although plausible to contend that religious
organizations have a constitutional right to be
exempt from taxation, the standard treatment
is that exemptions are permissible but not
required.

Generally, religious organizations are exempt
from taxation, but there are exemptions:
 Bob
Jones University v. United States (1983)

15. Frontier Issues

Issues of marriage and divorce raise
fundamental questions about the scope of
authority of religious organizations and the civil
state.

In the past decade, issues of civil and criminal
liability for religious organizations have come
to the fore.