Jones v. Wolf
United States Supreme Court
443 U.S. 595 (1979)
- Written by Heather Whittemore, JD
Facts
The Vineville Presbyterian Church (Vineville) of Macon, Georgia, was established in 1904. The church property was deeded to the trustees of Vineville. Vineville was a member church of the Augusta-Macon Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). The hierarchy of the PCUS places individual churches at the bottom, the presbytery above churches, the synod above the presbytery, and the General Assembly at the top. In 1973 a majority of Vineville’s members voted to leave the PCUS and join another denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). The Augusta-Macon Presbytery determined that the minority of Vineville’s membership made up the true congregation and revoked any authority the members of the majority had in the PCUS. The minority group sought relief in federal court, hoping to retain the church property as the continuing members of the PCUS. The federal court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction. The minority group brought the case to state court. The trial court used Georgia’s neutral-principles-of-law approach to church-property disputes and ruled in favor of the majority group. The neutral-principles-of-law approach instructed courts to look at deeds, trusts, and the legal title of the property to determine which faction in a church dispute should retain church property. The minority challenged the trial court, arguing that its decision violated the First Amendment by going against the PCUS’s determination. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the trial court. The minority appealed, arguing that the trial court adopted a presumption of majority control.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Blackmun, J.)
Dissent (Powell, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.