LEGALITY OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 111, the United 'states. church discipline is administered exclusively by church officials and judicatories. The complete separation of Church and State deprives the civil tribunals of all power to re vise or question ordinary acts of church dis cipline. or of exclusion from church member ship. Secular tribunals have to do only With the rights of property and of personal liberty. ii these are illegally invaded, under pretext of administering, church discipline. the civil courts have authority to afford redress. See CIVIL CHURCH LAW.
Whether a chinch member is amenable to ec clesiastical punishment is to be determined by the proper officers or judicatories of the par ticular church. in accordance with its rules of government and discipline. From their final de cision no appeal lies to a civil court. In the language of the United States Supreme Court: "The law knows no heresy, and is committed to the support of no dogma, the establishment of no sect. The right to organize voluntary reli
gious associations to assist in the expression and dissemination of any religious doctrine, and to create tribunals for the decision of controverted questions of faith within the association, and for the ecclesiasti•al government of individuals, congregations., and officers within the general association is unquestioned. All who unite them selves to such a body do so with an implied consent to this government, and are bound to submit to it." The disciplinary authority of such bodies. and the rights and duties of their members, are governed by the same general rules of law that control in case of social or political clubs or other private organizations. See RELI GIOUS ''OCILTIES ; and compare CANON LAW and CIA