Lawrence v. Stephenson

It is well recognized that the legal or temporal tribunals of this State have no jurisdiction over, and no concern with, purely ecclesiastical questions and controversies, for there is a constitutional guarantee of freedom of religious profession and worship, as well as an equally firmly established separation of church and State. The courts do have jurisdiction as to civil, contract and property rights which are involved in, or arise from, a church controversy. It has been tersely expressed when said that religious societies have double aspects, the one spiritual with which legal courts have…