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Health & Fitness

'Amen' to That? High Court Tosses Discrimination Case Involving Church's Teacher-Employee, on First Amendment Grounds

Handicap discrimination cases against religious groups are examined by the Supreme Court – and under the First Amendment, says attorney Richard G. Marcil, these cases "don't have a prayer."

Assume for a moment that you are a teacher, or other type of worker, at one of your local churches, synagogues or mosques around Macomb Township. Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Mormon, non-denominational, Judaism, Muslim, whatever – suddenly you get injured, or become physically handicapped, and you find that you are subjected to discrimination of some kind (perhaps even due to a pregnancy, which is a particular type of protected "physical handicap" under the American With Disabilities Act.) There are many different types of anti-discrimination laws in Michigan under both state and federal law that protect you.

So if your employer was a private company (such as a dentist office or a bank, or Ford Motor or Kohl’s, for example), or part of government (such as a municipality or county police department), you could take advantage of – and sue for – claims of discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act. 

But if your employer is a church, does the prohibition against mixing church and state under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment preclude you from using laws that are designed to help you from being discriminated against? In other words, if the discrimination is done by a church, synagogue or mosque, can they “get away with it”?

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The answer is a surprising, “Amen.”

In a fascinating case that began with a woman from Redford, MI, the U.S. Supreme Court decided by a unanimous 9-0 majority yesterday that the separation of church and state doctrine prohibits certain claims of discrimination against church leaders and religious organizations.

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The so-called “Ministerial exception” was announced by the U.S. Supreme Court.   Attorneys for handicapped persons say the decision is “affront to their dignity” and “twists” handicap laws to make an exception for religious organizations to insulate them from claims that are enforced against non-religious companies, persons, and groups. This doctrine says the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of religion shields churches and their operations from the reach of such protective laws when the issue involves religious employees of these institutions.

But the high court tempered its decision bolstering the constitutional separation of church and state by refusing to give a detailed description of what constitutes a religious employee, which left an untold number of workers at churches, synagogues and other religious organizations still in limbo over whether government anti-discrimination laws protect them in job bias disputes.

"The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important," said Chief Justice John Roberts in a unanimous opinion. "But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith and carry out their mission ... [And when] a minister who has been fired sues her church alleging that her termination was discriminatory, the First Amendment has struck the balance for us.”

Douglass Laycock, who argued the case for a church school that fired a teacher for bringing about an employment discrimination lawsuit against it, called it a "huge win for religious liberty."

The court's recognition of the ministerial exception likely ends any chance members of the clergy and church leaders have to sue churches and other religious organizations for job discrimination, experts say. The U.S. Census identified 429,000 Americans as members of the clergy in 2010. "Clergy who are fired for reasons unrelated to matters of theology — no matter how capricious or venal those reasons may be — have just had the courthouse door slammed in their faces," said Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United.

In the current case before the court, Cheryl Perich of Redford, MI, complained to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that her firing was discriminatory under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Perich was promoted from a temporary lay teacher by a vote of the church's congregation and was hired as a commissioned minister. She got sick in 2004, then tried to return to work from disability leave despite being diagnosed with narcolepsy. The school fired her and removed her from the church ministry after she showed up at the school and threatened to sue to get her job back.

Judges will still have to decide which religious employees get protection and which ones don't, something that could bring the issue of who gets protection back to the Supreme Court. The case is Hosana Tabor Evang. Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC.

(Richard G. Marcil www.MarcilAttorney.com 586-412-0444 is an attorney in Clinton Township practicing in divorce, criminal defense, civil rights, and personal injury cases, as well as family law and business litigation.)

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