Although the ruling isn't expected to have any immediate impact outside of New York, it may encourage credit card companies and others who are owed money to raise the issue in other areas of the country, including Utah, said Henry Sommer, president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

"Our nation's founding fathers who envisioned a separation of church and state never imagined that this division would be used to engorge the profits of moneylenders at the expense of churches," Sommer said.

In issuing his ruling, the judge relied on the nation's new bankruptcy reform law that went into effect last October. He determined that law, supported by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and others, took precedent over the Religious Liberty and Charitable Donation Protection Act of 1998 that allowed tithing and other charitable donations to be made by those in bankruptcy.