In two recent cases, the Ninth Circuit delivered a blow to the “ministerial exception” enjoyed by religious institutions under the First Amendment and recognized by the Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. E.E.O.C. (2012). That case involved a teacher at a Lutheran school whose duties included teaching religion class and leading her students in prayer, and who challenged her dismissal by the church under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Court unanimously rejected her claim, holding that the ministerial exception precludes the application of employment discrimination laws to questions involving “the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministers.” Additionally, the government is not permitted to “contradict a church’s determination of who can act as its ministers …”
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