NEWPORT BEACH - Lawyers for a Newport Beach church whose split with the Episcopal Diocese sparked a legal tussle over the parish property asked the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week to decide issues of religious freedom they have raised.

St. James Anglican Church won its first round against the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in 2005, when Orange County Superior Court Judge David Velasquez, during pretrial motions, sided with its claim to the property and tossed the diocese's lawsuit.

But an appeal court and the California Supreme Court disagreed.

The state's highest court held that the property was held in trust for the larger church, and the congregation has no right to it if it is no longer affiliated with the diocese.

Lawyers for the congregation said it may be October before they learn whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take on the case.

The petition asks the Supreme Court to decide whether, under the U.S. Constitution, certain hierarchical religious denominations can make the claim that property in the name of a congregation is held in trust for the larger church.

That flies in the face of normal rules of property ownership that apply to everyone else, said John Eastman, a constitutional law scholar, who joined the team to pursue the Supreme Court appeal.

"We will be arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that the California Supreme Court's interpretation of state law has violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," Eastman said.

"The First Amendment says Congress shall pass no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Even though it says Congress, that amendment has been interpreted as applicable to the states as well," the scholar said.

"The California Supreme Court has given a preference to certain kinds of churches that claim to be hierarchical, that other churches and non- religious associations are not entitled to, and that violates the establishment clause," Eastman said. "We will also be arguing that denying the local church community their ability to organize and hold title to their own building and conduct their religious services in a manner they see fit, this California decision violates their right to the free exercise of religion."

Dozens of church property cases are percolating in the court system, lacking clear constitutional direction, lawyers said.

St. James Church never agreed to relinquish its property to the Episcopal Church upon a change of religious affiliation, and has consistently maintained that it has the right to use and possess its own property, the attorneys said.

Eric Sohlgren, who handled the case while it was in the Orange County Superior Court, said that even though a judge tossed the lawsuit, the underlying issues are still to be decided, and it is back before Orange County Superior Court Judge Thierry Colaw.

"Because St. James had an early victory in 2005 by legally attacking the Episcopal allegations, we now look forward to presenting evidence and additional legal arguments on behalf of St. James," he said.

"For example, St. James has brought a complaint against the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles based on a 1991 written promise that it would not claim a trust over the property of St. James on 32nd Street in Newport Beach," he said.

Cases involving two other breakaway parishes, All Saints in Long Beach and St. David's Church in North Hollywood, are also before the same judge, Sohlgren said.

In its lawsuit against St. James, filed on Oct. 8, 2004, the Los Angeles diocese attributed the dissension within the Episcopal church - part of the worldwide Anglican Communion - to the consecration in 2003 of the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, a divorced gay man in a committed relationship, as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire.

John Shiner, who represents the diocese, said earlier that he did not believe the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the case because he did not believe the congregation's lawyers can raise an issue the nation's highest court would be interested in taking on.