“If I were in litigation in another state I would certainly point to this and say, ‘Hey, this is what another state’s Supreme Court said,'” said Robert W. Tuttle, a church-state expert at the George Washington University Law School.<\/p>\n
Tuttle and others cautioned, however, that these kinds of property decisions tend to turn on facts specific to the case at hand.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Peter Frank, spokesman for the Anglican Church in North America, the conservative rival province that was launched in December, said he doesn’t expect Monday’s rulings to staunch the conservative exodus.<\/p>\n
“People that have made the choice to be mainstream Anglicans are unlikely to be sued back into a group they disagree with just because a panel of judges tells them they don’t actually own the candlesticks on the altar,” Frank said.<\/p>\n