The Supreme Court ruled that St. James Catholic School in Torrance cannot be sued for discrimination after it dismissed a teacher who needed to go on medical leave. To the editor: Society should not have the right to impose its values upon religious groups and institutions in the internal conduct of their religion. This was recognized unanimously by the Supreme Court in 2012 in a decision that exempted religious groups from employment discrimination laws, arguing that they must be free to choose and dismiss their leaders without government interference. As a progressive Catholic, I want women priests and married priests, but I don’t want the state to tell the Roman Catholic hierarchy whom it should ordain as priests. Unfortunately, some conservative religious groups have persuaded religious institutions to define their employees as ministers, regardless of whether that is part of their actual job description. This strategy won a significant victory Wednesday, when the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of two Catholic school teachers , allowing the “ministerial exception” rule to apply even if it allowed discrimination on the basis of age or disability. I found it shocking that the lawyers for these Catholic schools would argue by invoking the […]
