Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Cert Denied In Ministerial Exception Case
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied certiorari in Melhorn v. Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, (Docket No. 16-245, cert. denied 10/31/2016) (Order List.) In the case, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in an unreported opinion (set out in Appendix 1 to the Petition for Certiorari), applied the ministerial exception doctrine to bar a wrongful discharge suit by a pastor who was fired after refusing to accept the $600,000-plus portion of a bequest for upkeep of a cemetery that the church no longer owned.
Labels:
Maryland,
Ministerial exception,
US Supreme Court