The Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), thereby declining to intervene in USCCB’s efforts to dismiss a lawsuit alleging it misled donors about the purposes of the Catholic Church’s annual Peter’s Pence collection. The Court’s denial of the petition will leave in place a lower court ruling against USCCB’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit and allowing the case to proceed. U.S. courts have ruled in other cases that the First Amendment’s church autonomy doctrine prevents courts from interfering in internal church affairs. CLS filed an amicus brief in support of the cert. petition arguing that denial of a church autonomy defense is subject to interlocutory appeal and that the protection of the First Amendment church autonomy immunity would be lost once the claim is subjected to discovery and trial.
