Masterson v. Diocese of Northwest Texas

Today the Court applies state law governing corporations to bar summary judgment for TEC 1 on an ecclesiastical matter *615over which the Court has no jurisdiction. While I wholeheartedly agree with the Court that church property disputes should be resolved under the neutral-principles approach approved by the Supreme Court in Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 595, 99 S.Ct. 3020, 61 L.Ed.2d 775 (1979), in my view, the Court has misapplied those principles in this case. In deciding that the secular law governing corporations controls the outcome of this matter, the Court places undue emphasis on the local…