The Supreme Court released surprise orders Wednesday morning, agreeing to hear two little-known but important religious liberty cases. The cases will be argued together this upcoming spring, and the justices will rule on the “ministerial exception,” a legal doctrine that keeps courts from interfering in how religious employers hire, fire, or otherwise treat their religious employees.
Two Catholic schools based in California are challenging federal court rulings. In both cases, Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James Catholic School v. Biel, teachers sued these religious schools after their contracts were not renewed. Becket is defending these two religious-based schools and their right to choose ministers that represent their particular faith without government intrusion.
“Parents trust Catholic schools to assist them in one of their most important duties: forming the faith of their children,” Montserrat Alvarado, vice president and executive director at Becket, said in a statement. “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.”
“It is a timeless First Amendment principle that the government cannot meddle in internal church and ministry decisions,” said Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at the First Liberty Institute. “The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld this principle in the past, and we expect it will continue to do so in these cases.”
Becket argued a similar case in 2012. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the “ministerial exception” for that faith-based school. To be clear, the employees of faith-based institutions don’t need to be actual ordained ministers to meet this exception. Typically, that definition has applied to employees of religious organizations, such as churches or schools, who teach others about the important aspects of their particular faith.
However, whether or not a person qualifies as a minister under this exception is an issue that came up in that previous case — a federal court didn’t think so — and is something the Supreme Court will likely debate in these two new cases they’ve agreed to hear. The Supreme Court has already recognized that the ministerial exception does exist, but the issue at hand will be whether or not it applies in these cases and to these teachers. We should hope that the justices establish a broad interpretation of the exception that protects the rights of religious institutions.
Religious teachers are imperative to how faith-based private schools nationwide teach students. A government-free, religious education is often why many parents send their kids to such schools in the first place.
I attended such a private school for my entire undergraduate education. I’m thankful for the role my religious teachers played in my education, without any intrusion from the state. Let’s just hope the Supreme Court preserves that freedom for future generations.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
