Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Cert. Denied In Case On Invalidating Donations To Churches By Debtor In Bankruptcy

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari in Universal Church v. Geltzer, (Case No. 06-583), in which the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals had held that treating some contributions to churches as fraudulent conveyances in bankruptcy does not violate the Free Exercise or Establishment clauses. It also held that under the Religious Liberty and Charitable Donations Protection Act the shield for charitable donations of up to 15% of a debtor's annual income applies to aggregate annual transfers, not to individual donations. (See prior posting.)