In the long dispute over the compulsory membership of a married couple in the Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main, the plaintiffs before the Federal Constitutional Court suffered a defeat.
Your complaint against a judgment of the Federal Administrative Court from 2016 was not accepted for decision, as can be seen from the decision published in Karlsruhe on Wednesday.
(Az. 2 BvR 2595/16)
The couple moved from France in 2002 and declared their religion to be “Mosaic” at the registration office.
Thus both automatically became members of the local community for almost a year - although they reject its orientation as too orthodox.
The high earners should pay around 114,000 euros synagogue tax for this.
The case has preoccupied the courts for many years.
The couple initially had success at the Federal Administrative Court in 2010.
But the Constitutional Court overturned this ruling after a complaint from the Jewish community in 2014.
The Federal Administrative Court felt bound by this at the second attempt.
According to the current decision of the constitutional judges, the administrative court could have examined the case more freely.
The couple had "not substantiated" a violation of their fundamental rights, it said in the decision.
The couple had also tried it at the same time at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
In 2017, however, he said that the German constitutional court had to decide first.
The plaintiffs might now be able to make a new attempt.