Episcopal Church owns Falls Church property; Supreme Court lets Virginia court ruling stand
By Robert Barnes
THE WASHINGTON POST http://www.washingtonpost.com
March 10, 2014
The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a Virginia court's ruling that the Episcopal Church owns the historic property known as the Falls Church, the subject of a bitter, multimillion-dollar property dispute with a conservative congregation that left the denomination.
The justices gave no reason for declining to review the decision of the Virginia Supreme Court that the 3,000-member congregation, which voted in 2006 to leave the Episcopal Church, did not have the right to keep the sprawling property known as the Falls Church.
The Falls Church property is one of the country's largest Episcopal churches and is a landmark in downtown Falls Church.
The breakaway congregation, now called the Falls Church Anglican, has been worshiping in the Bishop O'Connell High School auditorium in Arlington County while it sought to overturn lower court decisions.
Virginia's high court ruled that the property belongs to the mainline denomination but said some of the nearly $3 million in church coffers belongs to the Falls Church Anglican congregation.
The court also rejected an appeal from a Pennsylvania school district that disciplined middle-school students who wore "I ♥ Boobies." bracelets to promote breast cancer awareness among young people.
The justices gave no reasoning for declining to review a federal appeals court ruling striking down a ban on the bracelets from the Easton Area School District. It said the suggestive message was causing problems.
Lower courts sided with two students who sued the district in 2010 with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.
*****
Heartbreaker: U. S. Supreme Court Denies Falls Church Petition
By Allan Haley
ANGLICAN CURMUDGEON http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2014/03/heartbreaker-u-s-supreme-court-denies.html
March 10, 2014
The order list published this morning by the United States Supreme Court shows that, after relisting the case for its conferences four times, it has denied certiorari (review) in No. 13-449, The Falls Church v. Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, et al. Under its rules, the Court grants certiorari when at least four of the nine justices are interested in a given case; it takes five justices to make a majority.
This was potentially a huge decision for those suffering from years of the courts' misreading of Jones v. Wolf (1979), 443 U.S. 595, as detailed in numerous posts on this blog. The significance is that it would have been the first church property dispute which the Court has accepted for review since Jones -- some 35 years ago. While the decision below (from the Virginia Supreme Court) is not based on ECUSA's Dennis Canon, it nonetheless is grounded in a misreading of how a national Church can unilaterally establish a trust in its favor on all parish property without the parishes themselves declaring the trust in question. Similar bad readings of the dictum in Jones have come from the Supreme Courts of Connecticut, Georgia, New York and California.
It also means that the Diocese of Virginia will now go ahead with its plans for The Falls Church campus. Furthermore, it means that the approximately $3 million that TFC has paid into the Court's registry since April 2012 will now be handed over to the Diocese -- added to the already $10 million worth of real property it received, the Diocese is the beneficiary of a real windfall, if ever there was anything that went by that name.
The Court thus seems willing to live with the disorder and confusion created by its dictum in Jones, at least until its current membership changes. And ECUSA will go on sowing discord and confusion in the State courts.
END
By Robert Barnes
THE WASHINGTON POST http://www.washingtonpost.com
March 10, 2014
The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a Virginia court's ruling that the Episcopal Church owns the historic property known as the Falls Church, the subject of a bitter, multimillion-dollar property dispute with a conservative congregation that left the denomination.
The justices gave no reason for declining to review the decision of the Virginia Supreme Court that the 3,000-member congregation, which voted in 2006 to leave the Episcopal Church, did not have the right to keep the sprawling property known as the Falls Church.
The Falls Church property is one of the country's largest Episcopal churches and is a landmark in downtown Falls Church.
The breakaway congregation, now called the Falls Church Anglican, has been worshiping in the Bishop O'Connell High School auditorium in Arlington County while it sought to overturn lower court decisions.
Virginia's high court ruled that the property belongs to the mainline denomination but said some of the nearly $3 million in church coffers belongs to the Falls Church Anglican congregation.
The court also rejected an appeal from a Pennsylvania school district that disciplined middle-school students who wore "I ♥ Boobies." bracelets to promote breast cancer awareness among young people.
The justices gave no reasoning for declining to review a federal appeals court ruling striking down a ban on the bracelets from the Easton Area School District. It said the suggestive message was causing problems.
Lower courts sided with two students who sued the district in 2010 with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.
*****
Heartbreaker: U. S. Supreme Court Denies Falls Church Petition
By Allan Haley
ANGLICAN CURMUDGEON http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2014/03/heartbreaker-u-s-supreme-court-denies.html
March 10, 2014
The order list published this morning by the United States Supreme Court shows that, after relisting the case for its conferences four times, it has denied certiorari (review) in No. 13-449, The Falls Church v. Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, et al. Under its rules, the Court grants certiorari when at least four of the nine justices are interested in a given case; it takes five justices to make a majority.
This was potentially a huge decision for those suffering from years of the courts' misreading of Jones v. Wolf (1979), 443 U.S. 595, as detailed in numerous posts on this blog. The significance is that it would have been the first church property dispute which the Court has accepted for review since Jones -- some 35 years ago. While the decision below (from the Virginia Supreme Court) is not based on ECUSA's Dennis Canon, it nonetheless is grounded in a misreading of how a national Church can unilaterally establish a trust in its favor on all parish property without the parishes themselves declaring the trust in question. Similar bad readings of the dictum in Jones have come from the Supreme Courts of Connecticut, Georgia, New York and California.
It also means that the Diocese of Virginia will now go ahead with its plans for The Falls Church campus. Furthermore, it means that the approximately $3 million that TFC has paid into the Court's registry since April 2012 will now be handed over to the Diocese -- added to the already $10 million worth of real property it received, the Diocese is the beneficiary of a real windfall, if ever there was anything that went by that name.
The Court thus seems willing to live with the disorder and confusion created by its dictum in Jones, at least until its current membership changes. And ECUSA will go on sowing discord and confusion in the State courts.
END
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