UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — On Feb. 1, the Penn State Law in University Park Civil Rights Appellate Clinic, representing the National Employment Lawyers Association and the National Employment Law Project, filed an amicus brief with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in an employment discrimination case.
The brief supports Shelley Fitzgerald, a guidance counselor fired from Roncalli High School, a Catholic school, after administration and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis learned she was married to another woman.
The amicus brief asks the 7th Circuit to restrict the expansion of the scope of the “ministerial exception” which applies to federal antidiscrimination statutes. The ministerial exception shields religious institutions from liability when they terminate employees who serve as “ministers” for that organization. The United States Supreme Court has taken an expansive view of who could be viewed as a minister.
For example, the Court has held that teachers at religious schools typically qualify as “ministers” because they play a major role in fostering students’ religious development. However, the Court has made it clear that only those employees who are vital and essential to the religion’s mission should be exempted from the coverage of the anti-discrimination laws. The clinic urged the Court to rule that guidance counselors like Fitzgerald who played no role in providing religious guidance to students are not ministerial employees.
It was noted that...
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