On Wednesday, the Supreme Court extended the principle of church-state separation in order to protect religious schools all over the nation from being sued for discrimination from teachers and school workers that are “ministers” of the faith. It was a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court that confirmed that the Constitution included a “ministerial exception” which protects churches and church schools from unnecessary interference from the government and its courts.
Since the first amendment preserves the right to freely practice a religion, the Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. stated that a state will violate religious freedom if it forces a church and/or its schools to keep an undesired minister. Law Professor Rick Garnett from Notre Dame agrees saying that this ruling was an important church-state decision in decades. According to Garnett, the ruling protects religious freedom and prohibits governments from second guessing decisions from the religious communities about the teachers, leaders, and minister they hire. However, the ruling only applies to some of the church’s employees; specifically mostly applies to teachers that teach the faith. In the case of Cheryl Perich from Michigan, she was fired from the Lutheran school she taught in. In 2004, she was diagnosed to have narcolepsy and so she took a break from teaching do to medical reasons. When she came back to the school she had a dispute with the school because they told her she was fired and had replaced her. Perich sued on allegations of violation of the American with Disabilities Act. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) agreed with her claims and sued the Lutheran church on her behalf. The EEOC and the lower courts took her position because there was no ministerial excerption in her case since she mostly taught math and reading and 45 minutes of her work time included religious activities.
However, Chief Justice Roberts disagreed, saying that Perich was indeed a commissioned minister since she received a special housing allowance that was only for employees that minister the faith. In addition her duties included guiding chapel services.
We conclude that Perich was a minister covered by the ministerial exception,” Roberts said, and therefore, she may not sue the church. “The 1st Amendment has struck the balance for us. The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way.”
Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Elena Kagan added that the “ministerial exception” also included Catholics, Jews, Muslim, and other religious faiths. In past years, the court had called upon the separation of state and church to force down laws by state that aided religious schools, but in this case, the court used the “free exercise” clause to rule against government interference with religion.
1 comment:
This is a very interesting ruling. While I agree that religion and government should be separated as much as possible, I feel that in this case, the Supreme Court's decision could lead to a new set of problems for both the church and the state. If someone is fired from a religious post for an unfair reason, he/she now cannot sue or turn to the court for help.
It seems that at some point, someone will take advantage of this and fire others for racist, sexist, or other prejudiced reasons, leaving the victims without a fair chance of fighting back.
We'll just have to wait and see how this decision will be used, and how it will affect the country in general.
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