U.S.: Religious school’s firing power heads to high court Thursday, December 19, 2019
Courthouse News Service
The Supreme Court took up two cases Wednesday that ask whether teachers at religious schools can sue their employers for discrimination.
The cases both involve what is known as the ministerial exception, which religious institutions can wield to block suits over their treatment of workers who perform religious functions. As the Ninth Circuit found in the underlying cases, however, the exception did not apply to two women who sued for discrimination after their contracts to teach at Los Angeles-area Catholic schools were not renewed.
Our Lady of Guadalupe School decided in 2015 not to bring back Agnes Morrissey-Berru, who had taught fifth and sixth grade at the Hermosa Beach school since 1999. Though the school attributed the move to dwindling enrollment and the demands of parents for more rigorous academics, Morrissey-Berru in her suit called this a pretense for age discrimination.
Read more at: https://www.courthousenews.com/religion-teacher-hiring-spat-heads-to-high-court/