Justices Won’t Resolve Separation of Church, State Disputes

The U.S. Supreme Court turned away two cases testing the ability of courts to intervene in disputes that arise in religious settings.

The justices on Monday rejected requests to clarify the reach of the “ministerial exception,” which prohibits courts from resolving internal ecclesiastical matters—including employment-related disputes.

InThe North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention v. McRaney, the court declined to consider whether federal courts can consider such disputes using only “neutral principles of tort law,” or in a way that doesn’t question the validity of a religious decision.

Rev. Will McRaney asked a federal court to ...