Your Curmudgeon has just received reliable word that ECUSA and its attorneys intend to ask the United States Supreme Court to review the (interlocutory!) decision by the Supreme Court of Texas in Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth v. Episcopal Church (USA), in which the Texas Court recently denied ECUSA’s petition for a rehearing. The decision is called “interlocutory” because it is not a final one — the case still has to go to trial before Judge Chupp in Tarrant County District Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court, as a rule, accepts review of interlocutory decisions only in cases of extreme emergency, where further proceedings in the lower court could wipe out a party’s chances ever to take a future appeal from the final decision, when it is eventually entered. (Recall that the Court denied the petition for review (“certiorari”) filed by St. James parish, in Newport Beach, following the interlocutory decision by the California Supreme Court in The Episcopal Church Cases — which returned those cases for trial, just as in Texas….)
Spot on, as usual. Incisive, lucid, and totally convincing. Alas, Haley is right. The motives behind this insane attempt to prolong the legal struggle are indeed transparent for all to see, and they are as ugly as hell. Yeah, for the leaders of TEC it’s all about punishment and revenge. How dare a diocese leave TEC?
But to punishment and revenge, I would add a third and fourth motive. It’s also all about intimidating other conservative churches or dioceses from even thinking about leaving TEC. Finally, it’s all about postponing as long as possible the day when the public realizes that TEC has no monopoly on the Anglican franchise in America. It’s all about trying to squash the upstart rivals before we have a chance to get established.
Very ugly and nasty indeed. As well as totally foolish. It will backfire on TEC’s leaders someday. They are “sowing to the whirlwind” (Job). What they sow, they will someday reap.
David Handy+