DALLAS — The Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could determine whether or not SMU can cut ties with a regional governing body of the United Methodist Church.
The United Methodist Church’s South Central Jurisdictional Conference, which runs the church’s congregations in eight states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Missouri and Nebraska, sued SMU in 2019. It owns three institutions, according to its website, including SMU
The lawsuit revolves around SMU’s decision to effectively declare itself independent from the denomination’s regional governing body. The university’s board of trustees voted in November of 2019 to update its governing documents “to make clear that SMU is solely maintained and controlled by its board as the ultimate authority for the University.”
SMU’s decision came amid a split within the United Methodist Church over issues of the ordination of LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriages within the church. The United Methodist Church voted in February 2019 to endorse the so-called “Traditional Plan,” which strengthened the church’s bans on ordaining LGBTQ clergy and hosting same-sex marriage.
The United Methodist Church’s South Central Jurisdictional Conference then sued SMU, arguing it has jurisdiction over the university and that the university needed its approval to make the changes to its governing language.
The conference claimed in the lawsuit that it founded SMU in 1911 with an initial gift of 133 acres of land.
“This lawsuit has become necessary because of recent, unauthorized acts by representatives of SMU in violation of SCJC’s rights and interests,” the lawsuit read.
“Even as we value our historical relationship with the Church, SMU is distinct from the Church. Nothing changes in SMU’s day-to-day operations as a result of this action. In founding SMU, members of the Methodist Church and the citizens of Dallas created a University as a separate corporate entity governed by the SMU Board of Trustees,” SMU said in February 2019.
In 2021, a judge ruled in favor of SMU in the lawsuit and dismissed the conference’s lawsuit with prejudice.
The conference appealed the verdict and Texas Fifth Court of Appeals reversed that dismissal in July 2023, ruling that the conference had standing to challenge the school’s 2019 governing document changes.
The Texas Supreme Court set oral arguments in the case of SMU and the South Central Jurisdictional Conference for January 2025.
