08:30
Tre Lawrence
There was an interesting ruling yesterday from the US Supreme Court.
In a unanimous decision, the court upheld that churches have the right to fire "religious" employees without having to deal with federal discrimination regulations. In doing this, the court tacitly acknowledged "ministerial exception" to employment laws. Thus, religious institutions can choose to sack religious workers at will.
The court stated that ruling otherwise would amount to the state interfering with how religious bodies are run, and would run afoul of the Free Exercise Clause.
The case was made its way to the Supreme Court by way of an EEOC case filed on behalf of Cheryl Perich, a teacher at a Lutheran church. Ms. Perich had tried to return from illness to her job, but claimed she wasn't fairly treated by the church when they would not re-hire her (the church had granted her leave, but then hired a substitute to finish out the year). The EEOC found that she had merit, and the case was on.
Of course, it gets murkier. Apparently, this applies to "religious" workers only. People doing secular work are not exempt. So...what is the definition of a religious worker? The Justices refused to go that far. In this specific case, there were plenty of disagreements in the lower courts as to whether Ms. Perich was a religious worker; the high court determined that she was since she was ordained.
The separation of church and state is a sword that cuts both ways, but this case is one that church workers need to be aware of, and will probably want to proactively discuss this with their church's decision-makers. Also, it may not be smart to sass Ms Molly if she is on the Personnel Committee.
What are your thoughts? Does this give churches carte blanche to do what they want?
1 comments:
This is a little scary. While it seems like this is a way to keep church and state separate, it is always a little gray when employers can fire at will without just cause.
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