Whether civil authorities violate the First Amendment when they engage in their own interpretation of church doctrine to overrule a church's determination that a particular official is a minister

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Virginia law provides an exemption from property taxes for “[r]eal property and personal property owned by churches * * * and exclusively occupied or used * * * for the residence of the minister of any church or religious body.” Va. Code § 58.1-3606(A)(2). The statute does not define the term “minister.” New Life In Christ Church claimed the tax exemption for a property occupied by Josh and Anacari Storms. The Church explained that the Stormses are “ministers” under the Presbyterian Church in America’s Book of Church Order because they were hired to teach and spread the faith to college students in the community. The City of Fredericksburg agreed that eligibility for the exemption turned on whether the Presbyterian Church in America considered the Stormses to be ministers, but it denied the exemption because, under its reading of the Book of Church Order, only ordained persons with specific duties are ministers of that church. The questions presented are: 1. Whether civil authorities violate the First Amendment when they engage in their own interpretation of church doctrine to overrule a church’s determination that a particular official is a minister and, if so, whether summary reversal is appropriate. 2. Whether, in the alternative, the Court should GVR in light of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 141 S. Ct. 1868 (2021), because Virginia has enacted a “system of individual exemptions” to its property tax law, and the City “may not refuse to extend that [exemption] system to [the Church] without compelling reason.” Jd. at 1878 (first alteration in original).