Supreme Court Says Churches Can’t Be Sued for Bias

Cited: MSNBC

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that ministers cannot sue their churches under employment discrimination laws should they be fired. In a case involving a minister at a church in Redford, Michigan, the high court overturned a U.S. appeals court decision which said that the minister’s role was secular, not religious and therefore was properly covered under employment discrimination laws.

However, the justices of the Supreme Court found that “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination laws should be the prevailing rule when it comes to these instances and that the federal government should have no say in examining the way in which a church goes about hiring and firing those with religious duties in their communities.

The case before the court had to do with a minister, Ms. Cheryl Perich, who taught secular and religious classes at the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Michigan. Ms. Redford wanted to come back to work after taking time off due to an illness known as narcolepsy, or sleeping disorder. The church refused to take her back saying that they had already found a replacement for Ms. Perich. She then sued the church citing unlawful discrimination and retaliation under the federal disabilities act.

On the other hand, the school said that the government had no jurisdiction in the case since it was indeed a religious school. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Ms. Perich’s favor but today’s decision overturned that of the lower court, ruling instead on behalf of the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In writing the opinion on the case, Chief Justice Roberts noted that the First Amendment of the Constitution barred these types of lawsuits, and that Ms. Perich was a  minister and that delving into a church’s employment decisions would improperly interfere with its internal affairs and infringe on a religious group’s constitutional right to shape its own faith and mission.

My take:

This is a tough one. Is Ms. Perich a minister or is she a teacher? The precedent now set by the U.S. Supreme Court should be looked at very closely by everyone that teaches at a religious school, and especially anyone considering teaching at one.