The Legal Brief
Church Autonomy as an Immunity: The Fifth Circuit Strikes the Right Balance.
October 31, 2025
By: Jon L. Anderson
The Fifth Circuit recently decided an important case for churches and religious institutions. McRaney v. North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, --F.4th--, 2025 WL 3012553 (5th Cir. 2025) affirmed summary judgment and dismissal of the plaintiff’s lawsuit challenging his firing from a religious institution. The court applied what is known as the “church autonomy” or “ecclesiastic abstention” doctrine, which recognizes that the Freedom of Religion clauses of the United States Constitution bar lawsuits against religious institutions for matters of internal governance or employment. McRaney is an important decision and has one of the most thorough discussions one can find in how to correctly apply the church autonomy doctrine.
While courts generally agree that when the church autonomy doctrine applies, they are prohibited from further adjudicating the lawsuit, they disagree as to how it is applied. Some courts treat the church autonomy doctrine as an affirmative defense which the religious institution must prove, while others treat it as a matter of subject matter jurisdiction, or whether the court can hear the case at all.
The McRaney court declined to apply the church autonomy doctrine in either way. Instead, the court found for the doctrine to be effective it must be treated as providing an immunity from suit, similar to a qualified immunity. This provides two distinct advantages. First, the doctrine can be asserted in a motion to dismiss the complaint and the court’s judgment is binding in all courts prohibiting plaintiff from refiling the complaint elsewhere. Second, treating church autonomy like other immunities allows an immediate appeal of the denial of a motion. Thus, “[t]he church is constitutionally protected against all judicial intrusion into its ecclesiastical affairs—even brief and momentary ones.”
McRaney’s treatment of church autonomy as an immunity provides churches with effective protection against suits over internal matters as required by the First Amendment. It ensures that decisions will be made early in the case on the merits with binding effect and provides that denials of motions to dismiss are immediately appealable.
It is likely that McRaney will be appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Meanwhile and hopefully, other courts will take note of the court’s well-reasoned analysis.