In our October 31st newsletter, we told you about an interesting case pending before the United States Supreme Court, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church v. EEOC. The Hosanna case concerns a very narrow employment issue applicable only to religious organizations - whether such organizations can avoid most employment claims based upon the "ministerial exception." This exception grows from the core separation of church and state principles which are highly unlikely to affect most employers.
The Sixth Circuit had found the ministerial exception inapplicable in this particular case, thereby allowing the religious organization employee to proceed with a disability discrimination claim. The Sixth Circuit simply found that the employee didn't perform enough religious duties to warrant the organization's exception defense - she only performed religious duties during 45 minutes of her workday.
We queried whether this "quantity versus quality" approach would stand. It did not.
In its first acknowledgement of the ministerial exception, the Court said that the Sixth Circuit placed too much importance on the limited amount of time she performed religious duties. Chief Justice Roberts explained, "The issue before us ... is not one that can be resolved by a stopwatch." The Court found the exception applied given the nature of her duties.
Look for our newsletter to further discuss this case.
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