Supreme Court Allows Discrimination as “Religious Freedom”

The Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out two job bias lawsuit sOur Lady of Guadalupe School V. Morrissey-Berru little Sisters of the Poor Sts. Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania brought by teachers against their religious employers, reaffirming that religious institutions and schools have a First Amendment right to select their employees.

It’s the latest case to come before the court exploring the relationship between church and state, and in their 7-2 ruling, the justices clarified the class of employees who are barred from suing their religious employers under anti-discrimination law.

Brian K. Bond, Executive Director of PFLAG National, released the following statement.

“Today, the Supreme Court granted wide berth to religious organizations to freely discriminate against employees without fear of violating the law. PFLAG members are deeply concerned about the repercussions of these rulings, which harm all people, including LGBTQ+ employees, by stripping away the basic, common-sense protections that ensure people will be judged on their merits, not discriminated against for who they are.

“Under today’s rulings, employees of religious institutions who have any kind of ministerial role are not protected by federal employment law, and government agencies and contractors can discriminate in the name of religious freedom to fire or to prevent employees from accessing health care guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, musicians, artists, and staff at religious schools and institutions today lost their 14th Amendment rights to equal protection under the law. All discrimination is wrong, as the Supreme Court’s recent Title VII ruling demonstrates, and PFLAG will continue to fight to end discrimination in all its forms.”

The Supreme Court of the United States released its rulings on Our Lady of Guadalupe School V. Morrissey-Berru questioning whether teachers and teaching staff at religious schools have federal employment protections and Little Sisters of the Poor Sts. Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania (consolidated with Trump v. Pennsylvania), about whether the expansion of the conscience exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control mandate violates both the ACA and the laws governing federal administrative agencies.