School guidance counselor Shelly Fitzgerald isn’t giving up her court battle against a Roman Catholic high school in Indiana that fired her after learning of she was in a same-sex marriage.
Ms. Fitzgerald has appealed the dismissal of her lawsuit by a federal judge, declaring that “employers are not above the law” even if they claim religious exemptions.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, whose attorneys represent Ms. Fitzgerald, said she was “beloved and trusted” in her job for 14 years and received near-perfect performance reviews. But after church officials learned she married her same-sex partner of 25 years, she was placed on administrative leave and banned from campus, and her contract was not renewed.
In September, Judge Richard Young of Indiana’s Southern District ruled Ms. Fitzgerald had no basis to sue. Roncalli High School and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis enjoyed a “ministerial exception” for employing a guidance counselor who was expected to transmit and model Catholic doctrine, the judge ruled.
A string of Supreme Court decisions beginning with 2012’s Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said religious organizations can define positions other than ordained clergy as “ministerial” and thus exempt from various employment discrimination laws.
Ms. Fitzgerald’s attorneys said Judge Young “disregarded Fitzgerald’s abundant record evidence that she never performed religious duties,...
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