Day: July 27, 2026

The First Amendment Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine does not bar civil courts from resolving real property claims involving religious entities where the dispute can be decided using neutral principles of law without determining underlying theological or doctrinal questions. A defrocked bishop residing in a church-owned parsonage without a lease or rent payments is a licensee, not a tenant under Maryland property law, whose possessory rights terminate immediately upon revocation by the property owner.