SMU’s Bid to Split From United Methodist Church Over LGBTQ+ Rights Heads to Texas Supreme Court

A multi-year fight over whether Southern Methodist University can separate itself from the United Methodist Church is heading to Texas’ highest court this month. The Texas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit between the 12,000-student private university in Dallas and the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church on Jan. 15. In 2019, SMU leadership changed its articles of incorporation and declared that its board of trustees was the “ultimate authority” over the university, not the United Methodist Church. The university's articles of incorporation detail how the university is governed and by whom.