General
USCCB Amicus Curiae brief in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v Biel (2020)
USCCB Amicus Curiae brief in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v Biel, February 2020
The ministerial exception is grounded in both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause. By focusing myopically on training and titles to determine which employees qualify as “ministers,” the court of appeals’ judgment abridges the Catholic Church’s rights—and those of many other religious groups—under both Religion Clauses.
The Ninth Circuit’s approach violates the Free Exercise Clause by effectively penalizing the Catholic Church for exercising its fundamental theological belief in active lay participation in the mission of the Church. As part of its broader doctrine of Church unity, Catholic teaching emphasizes that the laity is to be “coresponsible” for the life and mission of the Church. Carrying out this tenet, many professional Catholic laypeople execute the Church’s mission to feed the hungry, help the homeless, and educate the next generation. These laypeople, by definition, often lack the formal titles and training that the Ninth Circuit views as essential to the definition of “minister.” By requiring formal credentials, the Ninth Circuit’s test imposes liability on the Catholic Church for exercising its theological belief in lay participation. It also improperly pressures the Church to change its internal organization to avoid liability, contrary to Church teaching.
The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” U.S. Const. amend. I. While these two clauses “often exert conflicting pressures,” Cutter v. Wilkinson, 544 U.S. 709, 719 (2005), the ministerial exception harmonizes them: “Both Religion Clauses bar the government from interfering with the decision of a religious group to fire one of its ministers.”