SCOTUS Decision on Religious Liberty

Press release:

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC.

In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court held that the government cannot interfere in the hiring or firing of ministers or religious leaders and teachers-even when only a small part of that teacher's time is spent in religious instruction.

This decision reversed an opinion from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that this limitation on government intrusion-the "ministerial exception"-did not apply to a Christian-school teacher who only spent 45 minutes per day engaged in religious instruction.

If the Sixth Circuit's opinion had stood, religious organizations nationwide could have been required by the government to hire employees of faiths and ideologies inconsistent with those of the organization.

Good.