Legal Updates RSS
Supreme Court Recognizes Ministerial Exception to Employment Discrimination Laws
Jan. 12, 2012
In a landmark decision that will benefit churches and other faith-based organizations, the United States Supreme Court has specifically recognized the existence of a "ministerial exception" to the employment discrimination laws and, just as importantly, has ruled that the exception is not limited in its applicability to pastors, priests and other heads of a congregation. In Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (U.S. Supreme Court, January 11, 2012), a unanimous Court held that the ministerial exception prevented a "called" teacher employed by a religious school from pursuing a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).