The Supreme Court has decided, 7-2, that teachers in Catholic elementary schools are not covered by employment discrimination law. This is a highly important expansion of religious exemptions from government regulation. The Supreme Court had already given religious institutions an exemption for so-called “ministerial” employees. It has now gone substantially further, declaring that such institutions are entitled to “autonomy with respect to internal management decisions that are essential to the institution’s central mission” according the majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, the justice most committed to expansion of religious exemptions. It’s remarkable that the two pragmatist liberal justices, justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, joined that opinion. For Breyer and Kagan to take this step suggests that they may have been trying to show that they’re willing to cross traditional liberal lines to avoid a 5-4 decision — hence protecting the court from the perception of deep ideological division. The move by Breyer and Kagan should be juxtaposed with two other rulings this term: the Louisiana abortion case, where Chief Justice John Roberts crossed ideological lines, and the LGBTQ discrimination case, where Justice Neil Gorsuch also did so. The background to this case reveals the ruling’s far-reaching nature. In […]
