When the finance officer of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, MS, who had been appointed for a five-year term under the Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church, was fired by the bishop in 2018 and was unsuccessful in pursuing internal appeals, he sued not only for wrongful termination, but also for defamation and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A trial court denied the church’s motion to dismiss based on a claim for ecclesiastical abstention from matters that pertain to the Code of Canon Law. On an interlocutory appeal, the Supreme Court of Mississippi has reversed and held that the courts have no jurisdiction because of the First Amendment’s ecclesiastical...