Unwanted ministers: religious freedom upheld.

• Author: Root, Damon
• Position: Citings - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School - Brief article

IN JANUARY the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in what started out as a very controversial case. At issue in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was whether the "ministerial exception" to federal anti-discrimination law shielded a parochial school from a workplace disability lawsuit filed by a discharged teacher. According to the school, its internal personnel decisions should be shielded by the First Amendment's requirement that Congress make no law "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion.

The Obama administration took a very different view of the First Amendment's scope, arguing in its brief that "the Free Exercise Clause provides petitioner with no defense to an [Americans With Disabilities Act] claim for unlawful...