Supreme Court Hears Arguments on "Ministerial Exception" to Employment Laws

In its 2012 decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that religious ministries have an absolute First Amendment right to choose their religious ministers. This “ministerial exception” shields religious institutions from federal employment discrimination claims brought by their ministers. Since Hosanna-Tabor, however, many questions have arisen regarding the ministerial exemption, such as what makes an institution a religious ministry or what makes an individual a religious minister. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on two cases regarding the scope of this exemption.

The plaintiffs in the cases before the Court were grade school teachers at parochial schools in California. These teachers claim to be different than the plaintiff in Hosanna-Tabor, a commissioned minister/teacher at a religious school who taught both secular and religious classes and also led students in prayer and worship, because they are primarily lay employees who taught secular subjects and were not required to be Catholic to have the position. One teacher claims that her termination was due to age discrimination, and the other claims that she was fired because she told her supervisor that she needed time off for medical treatment for breast cancer. The schools denied the allegations but also claimed that the ministerial exception applied because the teachers taught students religion for 40 minutes each day.

At oral argument, the Court primarily wrestled with how to determine which employees of religious ministries are ministers themselves. For example, would a church organist be covered by the exemption? What about a nurse at a Catholic hospital? Or a counselor at a church-affiliated rehab clinic? It will be interesting to see how the Court reconciles establishing clear guidelines for lower courts to follow with avoiding excessive entanglement with religion. A decision is expected in the coming months.

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