4/14/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly an elder. The General Assembly, as the highest deciding body in the church's structure, had the authority, procedure, and organization to resolve the church’s internal disputes. Watson further underscored the lack of jurisdiction of Civil courts over ecclesiastical matters: But it is a very different thing where a subject matter of dispute, strictly and purely ecclesiastical in its character - a matter over which the civil courts exercise no jurisdiction - a matter which concerns theological controversy, church discipline, ecclesiastical government, or the conformity of the members of the church to the standard of morals required of them becomes. the subject of its action. It may be said here also that no jurisdiction has been conferred on the tribunal to try the particular case before it, or that, in its judgment, it exceeds the powers conferred upon it, or that the laws of the church do not authorize the particular form of proceeding adopted, and, in a sense often used in the courts, all of those may be said to be questions of jurisdiction. But it is easy to see that if the civil courts are to inquire into all these matters, the whole subject of the doctrinal theology, the usages and customs, the written laws, and fundamental organization of every religious denomination may and must be examined into with minuteness and care, for they would become in almost every case the criteria by which the validity of the ecclesiastical decree would be determined in the civil court. This principle would deprive these bodies of the right of construing their own church laws, would open the way to all the evils which we have depicted as attendant upon the doctrine of Lord Eldon, and would, in effect, transfer to the civil courts where property rights were concerned the decision of all ecclesiastical questions.[11] Serbian Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich[12] another case decided by the US Supreme Court, quoted Watson's formulation of the deference test when it ruled in favor of the Holy Assembly of Bishops and the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church (Mother Church). The Mother Church suspended and subsequently removed Milivojevich as Bishop of its American-Canadian Diocese. Milivojevich sought relief from the Illinois Circuit Court to prevent the Mother Church from interfering with the assets of his diocese, and to declare himself as the diocese's true Bishop. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of Milivojevich because it found that the proceedings for Milivojevich's removal were procedurally and substantively defective under the Mother Church's own internal regulations. The US Supreme Court reversed the Illinois Supreme Court and declared that the Illinois Supreme Court made inquiries into matters of ecclesiastical cognizance and polity. Thus, the Illinois Supreme Court's actions pursuant to its inquiry ran contrary to the US Constitution's First [13] and Fourteenth[14] Amendments. The US Supreme Court concluded: In short, the First and Fourteenth Amendments permit hierarchical religious organizations to establish their own rules and regulations for internal discipline and government, and to create tribunals for adjudicating disputes over these matters. When this choice is exercised and ecclesiastical tribunals are created to decide disputes over the government and direction of subordinate bodies, the Constitution requires that civil courts accept their decisions as binding upon them.[15] https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/66079 17/24