USA TODAY International Edition
Supreme Court to rule on church- state separation
Catholic school teachers had challenged firings
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to consider the separation of church and state in a case testing the right of religious schools to fire teachers despite job discrimination claims.
It will be the second major religious freedom case to come before the court this term. The justices already are scheduled to hear a case from Montana next month on whether state funds can be used to help pay for tuition at religious schools.
Two religious school teachers from California, one of whom has since died, were fired by their respective Catholic schools. The schools relied on a Supreme Court precedent giving religious organizations “ministerial exceptions” from laws that apply to other employers.
The U. S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of the teachers, prompting both schools to petition for Supreme Court review. The two cases will be consolidated and heard in the spring.
“Parents trust Catholic schools to assist them in one of their most important duties: forming the faith of their children,” said Montserrat Alvarado, vice president at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing both schools. “If courts can second- guess a Catholic school's judgment about who should teach religious beliefs to fifth graders, then neither Catholics nor any other religious group can be confident in their ability to convey the faith to the next generation.”
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the high court's unanimous opinion in 2012 that federal discrimination laws do not apply when religious organizations choose their leaders. The question now is whether teachers whose primary responsibility is education can be treated as “ministers” and therefore exempted from discrimination laws.
One of the teachers, Kristen Biel, was fired from St. James Catholic School after she revealed that she had breast cancer and needed medical leave to undergo chemotherapy. She sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act and has since passed away.
The other teacher, Agnes MorrisseyBerru, who is not a practicing Catholic, taught for 16 years at Our Lady of Guadalupe School but was let go based on her performance. She claimed age discrimination.
The court has ruled in favor of religious liberty in several cases recently. This year, it ruled 7- 2 that a Latin cross on government land in Bladensburg, Maryland, does not have to be moved or altered in the name of church- state separation.
That was one in a series of high court decisions defending religious freedom, from allowing public prayer and allocating public funds to exempting religious objectors from laws regarding contraception and same- sex marriage.