Master v. Second Parish’s Empirical Analysis
1940
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1981
2 federal appellate · 2 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Watson v. Jones · Eustace v. Dickey · Old South Society v. Crocker · Baker v. Fales · Glaser v. Congregation Kehillath Israel
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, hereinafter for convenience referred to as the plaintiff church, is a large, national, voluntary religious organization, comprising many churches of the Presbyterian denomination throughout the country, united in a common religious belief and form of worship, and having an organization which embraces the various churches and congregations, all of which are subject to the authority of other ecclesiastical bodies called judicatories, with the final authority vested in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. “The executive body of each church or congregation is called a Session, which seems to have the functions of an executive committee. It is composed of members of the congregation, elected by it, called ruling elders, together with the regularly installed pastor who is ex officio the moderator. To constitute a Session there must be at least one ruling elder and the pastor. The Session has charge of the spiritual welfare of the congregation and the right to control the use of the property of the church for the purposes of worship. “Next above the Session in the organization is the Presbytery, consisting of all the ministers, — in number not less than five, —and one ruling elder from each congregation within a certain district. Subject to appeal, the Presbytery has jurisdiction over the churches in its district. The Session of any regular Presbyterian Church in Portland is subject”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Be it resolved that we, the Second Parish Presbyterian Church of Portland, Maine, do deplore the unpresbyterian actions of the 148th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. Therefore, be it further resolved that this church does not desire to join in this departure from the faith of our Presbyterian forefathers; therefore we stand on the doctrinal basis on which this church has stood from its beginning, and declare that the body which has taken these actions has no longer any jurisdiction, control or authority over us.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A]ll religious societies in this State, whether incorporate or unincorporate, shall at all times have the exclusive right of electing their public teachers, and contracting with them for their support and maintenance.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Graffam v. Wray
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.