Employment clergy exception

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reaffirmed the ministerial exception to employment laws as applied to religious schools. A private Christian elementary school fired an assistant principal, who sued, claiming that his termination was retaliation for complaining about race and sex discrimination and for raising concerns that the school’s main funder might be a sex offender.

The court noted that the assistant principal’s duties included not only student discipline and staff supervision, but also spiritual leadership and teaching. The school asked him lead youth programs, lead a devotion each month in with staff, and pray and lead devotions at each school board meeting. Because he “played an important role in furthering the school’s mission to provide for the religious education and formation of students,” he fit within the ministerial exception to employment laws.

Under that exception, Constitutional religious freedom preclude application of employment laws to the “relationship between a religious institution and certain key employees.” Even though the assistant principal in this case had secular administrative duties, he also “performed vital religious duties” at the school. Quoting the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the Sixth Circuit concluded, “The religious education and formation of students is the very reason for the existence of most private religious schools, and therefore the selection and supervision of [the employees] upon whom the schools rely to do this work lie at the core of their mission.” Accordingly, the school in this case was entitled to summary judgment on the employment claims.

Federal courts are almost uniformly applying the ministerial exception to faculty and administrators who are part of a school’s religious mission. If your youth-serving organization has a religious purpose and mission, then you need to be clear in your employment documents, including handbooks and job descriptions, each person’s role in that mission. Be sure that you routinely review your documents so that they accurately capture all job duties, including any that might have shifted in the day-to-day rush of meeting all of your obligations.

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