By a vote of 7-2, the U.S. Supreme Court held on July 8, 2020, that the “ministerial exception” under the religion clauses of the First Amendment forecloses employment-discrimination claims against religious schools by teachers with religious duties. Prior to the court’s decision in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru , the Supreme Court had applied the “ministerial exception” only to employees with the title “minister” who had religious training. Without a “rigid formula” from the U.S. Supreme Court, lower courts had subsequently differed on how broadly to apply the exception. After Our Lady , the “ministerial exception” immunizes religious institutions from employment discrimination claims by teachers — and perhaps non-teachers — with religious duties. Background In its 2012 decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC , the U.S. Supreme Court adopted the “ministerial exception.” Hosanna-Tabor held that, under the First Amendment, religious institutions have discretion over whom they employ as “ministers,” unconstrained by anti-discrimination laws. So, for example, if a church wanted to fire its pastor based on gender or sexual orientation, it could do so, even though such discrimination would ordinarily be illegal. In that case, the court did not announce “a rigid formula” […]
