HOSANNA-TABOR EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH AND SCHOOL v. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION ET AL – Does EEO law override a church’s right to establish and implement any criteria it may see fit for hiring and firing an employee? This case was decided in favor of the school.
Legal Case Citations:
Post Decision Commentary and Analysis:
- SCOTUS blog article with links to supporting documentation and further discussion.
- God and Culture Phone in Interview Paul speaks with Alliance Defense Fund Attorney Kevin Theriot about what the Beckett Fund calls the Supreme Court’s “most important religious liberty case in twenty years.” A Lutheran church and it’s school in Redford, Michigan had been sued by the EEOC for employment discrimination when it fired one of its teachers.
- Wikipedia Article
- American Bar Association
- The Irony of Hosanna-Tabor – a paper that discusses the difficulty of deciding cases like this and ways the author thinks it could’ve been resolved. The author also identifies an implication of this decision in that “individuals have absolutely no protection from neutral laws of general applicability, even if the laws bar them from participating in a sacrament, while religious institutions may be protected absolutely, even if their acts have no religious basis“
- The Sins of Hosanna-Tabor – This Article criticizes Hosanna-Tabor as a profound misinterpretation of the First Amendment. The Court mistakenly protected religious institutions’ religious freedom at the expense of their religious employees. Religious employees have been subjected to disabilities discrimination, sexual harassment, unequal pay, hostile work environments, age discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, gender discrimination, race discrimination, assault, retaliation, national origin discrimination, tortious interference with contract, blacklisting, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and breach of contract. Instead of having a day in court to win or lose their cases, they have been barred from litigation by the ministerial exception, a rule that always grants victory to the employer.
ANO/LW Blog Posts:
ANO / Lutheran Watch 