(RNS) A California parish plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to settle its property dispute with the Episcopal Church, arguing that a state court rulinginfringes on the parish’s constitutional rights.

St. James Anglican Church in Orange County left the national denomination after the election of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire in 2003. Last January, the California Supreme Court ruled that “when it disaffiliated from the general church,” St. James “did not have the right to take the church property with it.”

Since Robinson’s election, dozens of parishes and four dioceses have split from the Episcopal Church, sowing legal battles that are now advancing through state and local courts. Episcopal leaders argue that church property is held in trust for regional dioceses and the national denomination, and reverts to their control when parishes decide to leave.

John Eastman, an attorney for St. James, said the California court violated the U.S. Constitution by infringing on the parish’s right to free exercise of religion and by favoring the Episcopal Church over other religious organizations.

The California court said its legal reasoning was guided by neutral principles, a claim disputed by Eastman, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 1996-1997.

Now dean of Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, Eastman said the high court should take the case because “an important case of constitutional law has not been decided” and because state courts have issued contradictory rulings on similar cases.

But Robert Tuttle, an expert on church-state law at the George Washington University Law School, said he would be surprised if the Supreme Court decided to hear the case.

“They usually wait to collect a number of cases before they step in,” he said of the Supreme Court justices, “not that many state supreme courts have recently been deciding cases like these.”

St. James plans to file its appeal this month and expects a response from the Supreme Court by October.