Supreme Court reconvenes with tumultuous decisions ahead
Tom Ramstack – AHN News Legal Correspondent
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Supreme Court reconvened Monday for its next term that runs through the spring of 2012.
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Also awaiting Supreme Court review is Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which could resolve questions over how clergymen administer their religious duties.
The lawsuit was filed by a teacher at an Evangelical Lutheran school who lost her job after administrators determined her narcolepsy interfered with her work performance.
The teacher says the termination was discrimination based on disability.
School officials responded by arguing they could not be sued because of the “ministerial exception” that grants an immunity from lawsuits for clergymen performing their religious duties.
Until now, courts have included the ministerial exception as being part of the freedom of religion granted by the First Amendment. In other words churches and their schools have broad discretion to decide how they handle internal affairs, including employment policies.
But the teacher in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC says teaching mostly non-religious courses to children is not the same as freedom of religion.
Lower courts have split on the case, which brought it to the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court limits the ministerial exception, legal scholars say
it could open the door for lawsuits against the Catholic Church for not allowing women to become priests and against several denominations for refusing to ordain openly homosexual clergy.
