Amicus Curiae

The national importance of the St. James case is amplified by the religious organizations, denominations, scholars and experts who have stepped forward to file amicus briefs in support of (and against) the legal arguments made by St. James in the California Supreme Court.

Amicus curiae or amicus is a Latin phrase, literally translated as “friend of the court,” that refers to someone – other than a party to a case – who volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to assist the court in deciding a matter before it. Amicus briefs can provide valuable information about legal arguments, or how a case might affect people other than the parties to the case.

Posted here are six amicus briefs filed in support of St. James before the California Supreme Court:

All Saints’ and St. David’s Anglican Churches
All Saints’ Church, Long Beach, and St. David’s Church, North Hollywood, filed a brief arguing that when St. James publicly ended its affiliation with the Episcopal Church in 2004, it did so in furtherance of free speech about a public issue, and therefore met a key requirement of a statute which protects people from being sued for exercising their free speech rights. The widespread media attention this dispute has captured since 2004 is strong evidence of this public interest.

Download PDF

Charismatic Episcopal Church
The Charismatic Episcopal Church (CEC), an Episcopal denomination with more than 1000 affiliated churches, filed a brief in support of St. James arguing that the CEC has structured its property around neutral principles of law, and that simply deferring to a church hierarchy to resolve church property disputes would lead to unintended liabilities flowing to denominations from local churches. This brief adopts a very practical approach to how local churches actually operate in a community of believers.

Download PDF

Diocese of San Joaquin (Anglican)
The Diocese of San Joaquin (Anglican) filed a brief in support of St. James asking the California Supreme Court to adopt the neutral principles of law method of resolving church property disputes.

Download PDF

Iglesia Evangelica Latina
Constitutional law scholars Kenneth Starr and Robert Cochran submitted a brief in support of St. James on behalf of the leaders of Iglesia Evangelica Latina (IEL), a large congregation that lost a case in the Los Angeles Superior Court because the judge erroneously ruled that the Assemblies of God is an hierarchical church. This brief exposes the constitutional weaknesses of an approach that gives blind deference to church hierarchies in property disputes, and praises neutral principles of law as the preferred modern approach.

Download PDF

Presbyterian Lay Committee
The Presbyterian Lay Committee (PLC) is a national organization that publishes the Layman and also educates faithful Presbyterians about legal and denominational issues. PLC has publicly opposed the attempts of the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination to confiscate local church property through its own unilateral “trust” rule. The PLC amicus brief argues that civil courts must not defer to certain religious organizations in property disputes; otherwise the U.S. Constitution will be offended. Among others, this brief was authored by Eugene Volokh, a professor of constitutional law who teaches religious freedom law and has written a law school text book on the religion clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

Download PDF

Rev. Peter Min and Thomas Lee
Representing the viewpoints of many other ministers and church members, Rev. Peter Min and Thomas Lee argued in their amicus brief that numerous California statutes would not allow the Episcopal Church to unilaterally impose a trust over the property owned by St. James, and that such an approach would unconstitutionally prefer certain forms of religion over other religions and non-religions.

Download PDF