The Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America case was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that dealt with issues of church autonomy and state interference in religious matters. The dispute began when two factions within the Russian Orthodox Church disagreed over who had control over St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York City - one group supported by American law, and another backed by a Soviet-era patriarchate based in Moscow. In 1952, the court ruled unanimously that states cannot pass laws to determine how churches govern themselves or decide disputes about their property's ownership or control because it would violate First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of religion and separation between church and state.

In the dissenting opinion for Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Justice Reed argued that the Supreme Court should not have intervened in this case as it was essentially a dispute about property rights and church governance within a single religious organization. He believed that New York State had acted within its constitutional authority by passing legislation to resolve these issues, and he did not see any violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom. In his view, the majority decision represented an unwarranted intrusion into state affairs and could potentially undermine states' ability to regulate churches in other ways such as through tax laws or building codes.