1. Even if the Church were considered hierarchical -- which it is not-- civil courts could take jurisdiction of this controversy.

2. The First Amendment does not require blind deference of the courts to ecclesiastical decisions. Serbian has left open the possibility of exceptions to deference in cases of collusion and fraud.

3. While the Serbian exception is narrow, it would encompass this controversy IF the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, were a hierarchical church -- which it is NOT.

4. In an eloquent dissent in Serbian, Justice Rehnquist outlined the ominous danger of courts according blind deference to ecclesiastical decisions.

5. Justice Rehnquist warned that such deference leaves claims to be resolved by brute force. He suggested that blind deference would transform courts into the "handmaidens of arbitrary lawlessness" -- Moreover, he raised the specter of establishment clause problems if the coercive powers of civil courts were used to simply "rubber-stamp ecclesiastical decisions of hierarchical religious associations, when such deference is not accorded similar acts of secular voluntary association."

6. The Directors in this dispute have taken the Church by force. Throughout the years they have consolidated their domination of the Church by obtaining judicial sanction of their fraudulent organization.

7. Civil court jurisdiction of this matter is requisite in order to avoid the dangers articulated by the honorable Justice Rehnquist.