A Victory For Religious Liberty

In a unanimous ruling yesterday in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC, the Supreme Court held that the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment bar religious ministers from "invoking the employment-discrimination laws against the religious organizations that employ them." Ed Whelan at Bench Memos has more:

Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion on behalf of the entire Court affirms that the so-called “ministerial exception” to employment-discrimination laws is firmly rooted in the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses, including the Court’s decisions establishing that “it is impermissible for the government to contradict a church’s determination of who can act as its ministers.” The opinion thus rejects the remarkably hostile contentions of the Obama administration that there is no general ministerial exception and that religious organizations are limited to the right to freedom of association that labor unions and social clubs enjoy. That latter contention, the Chief explains,

So, just to make clear:  the case by the Obama Justice Department was rejected by all nine justices.

On the concurrent opinions:

In one concurring opinion, Justice Thomas expresses his view that courts should “defer to a religious organization’s good-faith understanding of who qualifies as a minister.” In a second concurrence, Justice Alito, joined by Justice Kagan, calls for the inquiry to “focus on the function performed by persons who work for religious bodies,” rather than on whether a religious organization uses the term “minister” or has a concept of ordination.

Douglas Laycock who represented Hosana-Tabor, has an editorial at CNN.com here.

Lastly, Richard Garnett, Professor of Law at Notre Dame, has a rebuttal to the obvious counter-argument to the unanimous ruling of the Court:  that is, churches are now above the law and will be able to do anything they want if they simply couch it in theological terms.  Here is his answer:

Obviously, churches are not “above the law,” and sometimes they — like all of us — behave badly. However, governments are not permitted to resolve essentially religious disputes and questions. Today’s decision is a resounding win for religious liberty in America. It will be welcomed by a wide range of religious communities and traditions, and it should be embraced across the political spectrum. It is true that there are those for whom the idea that some relationships and questions are beyond the reach of the government’s anti-discrimination efforts is incomprehensible. But these objectors are mistaken. In a free society, governments are competent and powerful, but also limited, and they respect the rights and freedoms of other, non-state authorities and communities.