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SUPREME COURT TAKES CATHOLIC SCHOOLS CASE
The Supreme Court took up another dispute along the church-state divide Wednesday, agreeing to decide whether two former teachers can bring employment discrimination lawsuits against the Catholic schools that fired them.
At issue in those cases is the scope of the āministerial exception,ā which exempts religious employers from workplace bias claims when hiring and firing certain workers. The ministerial exception is why, for example, the Catholic Church can exclude women from the priesthood despite civil rights laws barring sex-based discrimination.
āParents trust Catholic schools to assist them in one of their most important duties: forming the faith of their children,ā said Montserrat Alvarado of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law group that represents the schools. āIf courts can second-guess a Catholic schoolās judgment about who should teach religious beliefs to fifth graders, then neither Catholics nor any other religious group can be confident in their ability to convey the faith to the next generation.ā
The Supreme Court first recognized the ministerial exception in a unanimous 2012 decision called Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC. Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that the exception emanates from the First Amendmentās religion clauses, which forbid religious favoritism and guarantee free exercise of faith. Government involvement with internal church governance violates both those commands.
Agnes Morrissey-Berru and Kristen Biel are the teacher-plaintiffs in Wednesdayās cases. Morrissey-Berru brought an age discrimination lawsuit against Our Lady of Guadalupe School after her dismissal in 2015. Beil sued St. James School after her 2014 termination, claiming she was fired after disclosing a breast cancer diagnosis. Both schools are in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. School administrators say the firings were a function of poor performance, not age or illness.
Federal trial judges ruled for the schools in both cases. Having found that the schools are religious organizations, the determinative question was whether the teachers count as āministers.ā The trial courts said they did, since their jobs involved āconveying the churchās message,ā praying with students, and āincluding Catholic teachingsā in daily lessons.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed both decisions. InĀ eachĀ case, the appeals panels emphasized that the teachers did not hold leadership positions, present publicly as ministers, or possess theological training.
Judge Ryan Nelson and eight other judgesĀ dissentedĀ after the full 9th Circuit refused to reconsider the panel ruling in Bielās case. Nelson said the panel decision āembraced the narrowest reading of the ministerial exception and diverged from the function-focused approach taken by our court previously, our sister courts, and numerous state supreme courts.ā
A group of law professors is supporting the teachers before the Supreme Court. Like Nelson, the professors say judges must focus on function when determining if a given worker is covered by the ministerial exception under the 2012 Hosanna-Tabor case. That means asking whether the employee preaches the churchās beliefs, teaches its faith, and furthers its mission. The 9th Circuitās focus on titles and credentials will lead to āimproper second-guessing of religious judgments,ā the professors warned.
āThe Ninth Circuitās reasoning invites courts to second-guess the religious schoolsā judgment about what types of religious training are essential to the schoolās religious mission,āĀ their legal brief before the justices reads. āThis entangles courts in one of the very religious questions that the ministerial exception is designed to avoid.ā. . .
The court will hear arguments in Wednesdayās cases in late spring, with a decision to follow by June. The cases are No. 19-267 Our Lady of Guadalupe v. Morrissey-Berru and No. 19-348 St. James School v. Biel
(Excerpt from the Daily Caller. Article by Kevin Daley.)
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Our Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ are fighting in the forefront particularly in the name of religious liberty and anti abortion. This is evidenced by their lead of The Right To Life March and in multiple religious education et al, involvement. The Catholic Church and their followers (our brothers and sisters) need our continued prayers. I noticed only a relative handful of prayers were prayed on this and other “Catholic” related news items. I humbly pray that all Christians unite in support of the Christian faiths, freedoms and liberty and we work to glorify HIS Holy name. Amen