Do Churches Have the Freedom to Determine How It Uses Donations?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns donors demanding that churches return money that they paid in tithing. The case was the focus for much of American religion centered on “the lawsuit that James Huntsman filed seeking the return of $5 million in tithing he donated to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Tad Walch reported on the court decision. 

Faith organizations, including specific religious groups, colleges and universities, as well as charities, didn’t just await a verdict, they had filed their opinions and arguments with the judges who would decide the case in half a dozen friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the positions of the Latter-day Saints.

On Friday, they responded with gratitude when a panel of 11 judges on the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the church summary judgment. The judges ruled unanimously in favor of the Latter-day Saints without allowing the case to get to trial.

“This lawsuit is extraordinary and patently inappropriate, a not-so thinly concealed effort to challenge the church’s belief system under the guise of litigation,” four of the judges wrote. “The majority is correct that there was no fraudulent misrepresentation even on the terms of plaintiff’s own allegations. But it would have done well for the en banc court to recognize the obvious: There is no way in which the plaintiff here could prevail without running headlong into basic First Amendment prohibitions on courts resolving ecclesiastical disputes.”

The faith-based groups, representing tens of millions of religious Americans from Baptists to Methodists and Lutherans and Jewish coalitions, were grateful that the judges closed the door on the idea that donors could claw back donations.

They also were grateful that many of the judges supported the church autonomy doctrine, a long-standing legal precedent that says governments and courts should steer clear of wading into church affairs such as how leaders choose to use donations.

Walch’s article is much longer with lots of interesting information. Gene Schaerr is an attorney who represented eleven major religious denominations, from Jewish groups to Protestants and Scientologists.

Schaerr said the Friday’s ruling could have an impact on two other tithing cases, one pending at the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals and the other in U.S. District Court in Uth, which is part of the 10^th Circuit.

            “All three of these cases are essentially challenges to the church’s ability to determine for itself                 how it uses its own resources,” Schaerr said, “and there’s probably no more important issue of                 church government than how a religious body chooses to use its own resources. I think these                 five judges are absolutely right that it’s just not possible, consistent with the First Amendment,              for these kinds of claims to be litigated in court at all.”