Ministerial Exception – Page 2

July 17, 2017 by mjpospis

2d Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Roman Catholic School Principal’s Gender Discrimination & Retaliation Claims Under the “Ministerial Exception”

In Fratello v. Archdiocese of New York, St. Anthony’s Shrine Church, and St. Anthony’s School, No. 16-1271, 2017 WL 2989706 (2d Cir. July 14, 2017), the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the Title VII gender discrimination and retaliation claims brought by plaintiff, a former Roman Catholic school principal, under the “ministerial exception”. The Second Circuit, addressing…

Court Dismisses Methodist Chaplain’s Religious Discrimination Claim Against Hospital Under the “Ministerial Exception”

In Penn v. The New York Methodist Hospital, No. 11-CV-9137 (NSR), 2016 WL 270456 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 20, 2016), the court dismissed plaintiff’s Title VII religion-based discrimination claim under the so-called”ministerial exception,” which operates at the intersection of anti-discrimination and First Amendment law. The ministerial exception, which is based on the Religion Clauses of the First…

Supreme Court Recognizes “Ministerial Exception” to Anti-Discrimination Laws

Last Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court (scroll down for decision) explored the interaction between the laws prohibiting employment discrimination (here, the ADA), on the one hand, and the First Amendment’s command that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, on the other. The Supreme Court Recognizes…