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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSupreme Court Permits Religious Schools to Discriminate After Forcing Taxpayers to Fund Them
Washington, D.C.Today, the religious equality organization American Atheists denounced the Supreme Courts 7-2 ruling in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, which expands a religious schools ability to discriminate legally against teachers by considering them ministers.
Its morally unconscionable that the Supreme Court is allowing religious schools to fire employees for discriminatory reasons, all while forcing taxpayers to fund them, said Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists, referencing the Supreme Courts decision last week in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. No American should be forced to fund discrimination. Allowing religious employers to ignore non-discrimination laws simply because they are religious is exactly the sort of preferential treatment the Establishment Clause prohibits.
Our Lady of Guadalupe and the consolidated case, St. James School v. Biel, involve two elementary school teachers whose contracts were not renewed. Agnes Morrisey-Berru allegedly lost her job due to age discrimination, while Kirsten Biel was fired after she told her religious employer that she would be undergoing treatments for breast cancer. Biel died in 2019 after a five-year battle with the disease.
The Supreme Court should never condone discrimination against anyone, especially not an elderly person or a cancer victim, said Gill. This ruling harms the religious freedom of every taxpayer who believes that faith should never be an excuse to ignore the law.
At the center of the cases is the ministerial exception, a court doctrine that allows religious organizations to select their religious leadersministers, pastors, or priestswithout government oversight. With this case, the Supreme Court has dramatically expanded the ministerial exception to include teachers with limited religious duties.
The overexpansion of the ministerial exception far past its original intent upends civil rights and labor protections for the countless workersteachers, nurses, and even janitorswho are employed at religiously affiliated organizations, warned Gill.
We know exactly whats coming next, said Nick Fish, president of American Atheists. Religious schools, hospitals, and service providersall receiving taxpayer money thanks to this administrations and this Courts constant attacks on the Establishment Clausewill start to call all of their employees religious leaders so they can discriminate against them with zero oversight.
This lays bare the twisted misinterpretation of religious freedom advanced by Christian Nationalists, said Fish. Elected officials rob public institutions of untold billions of dollars and redirect it to religious entities, forcing the American people to subsidize discrimination and fund providers they cant access for services or work for without discrimination.
As Justice Sotomayor said in her dissent, todays sweeping result is profoundly unfair and strips thousands of schoolteachers of their legal protections. Its unjust, its un-American, and sadly, its not at all surprising, added Fish.
https://www.atheists.org/2020/07/our-lady-of-guadalupe-school/?emci=843dbcdb-b4c3-ea11-9b05-00155d03bda0&emdi=9a0805cc-b9c3-ea11-9b05-00155d03bda0&ceid=4485246
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)since the counter culture died and Reagan began the new era of christofascist activism.
PandoraAwakened
(905 posts)Enough already. Time to change the SC from 9 to 15 after we take the House, the Senate, & the Executive Office.
yortsed snacilbuper
(7,939 posts)UTUSN
(70,649 posts)Buckeyeblue
(5,499 posts)I'm not sure it would apply to every state.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I am beyond disgusted.
Polybius
(15,336 posts)I'd love to hear their reasoning.