U.S. Supreme Court
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Ministers, pastors, priests, and other clergy are exempt from anti-discrimination laws and that's just as it should be. Religious groups should be able to pick their clergy based on religious rules and nothing else (though even within those rules there is surely unjustified discrimination going on). But just how far should this "ministerial exemption" be taken?
A huge array of religious groups is fighting to get the ministerial exemption extended to... well, it doesn't seem like they want to any limitations on it. In a case before the Supreme Court, they argue that they should be able to the ministerial exemption for just about anyone employed by any sort of religious organization. Others, including the government, argue that that's just absurd.
"One irony and injustice in the ministerial rule is that women employees of denominations that do not ordain women suddenly become ministers at the moment they file a lawsuit," the coalition wrote.
It continued: "Although some Roman Catholic, Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women may not become priests, imams or rabbis,...the courts and churches confer ministerial status upon them just long enough to keep their lawsuits out of court." ...
The former teacher also is getting support from the Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Some "courts have...converted the ministerial exception into a shield for all forms of discrimination and retaliation, regardless of motivation," they argued in a brief filed with the Unitarian Universalists, the National Council of Jewish Women and Sikh Council on Religion and Education. "And they have prevented judicial redress of even the most flagrant racial or sexual harassment."
Source: Courier-Journal
The diversity of religious groups supporting the religious school in this case is impressive: Catholics, United Methodists, Mormons, Hindus, Orthodox Jews, Episcopalians, Muslims, Seventh-day Adventists, Presbyterians, Santerians, Sikhs, Reform Jews... the list just goes on and on. Muslims and Jews. Conservatives and Liberals. You name it, they all seem to agree on this.
So what's the one way to get all religions united in common cause and fellowship? The desire to discriminate freely -- particularly against women! It's enough to bring a tear to your eye... as you weep for the prospects of every achieving justice in a world where such hateful religions continue to possess so much power.
Only a single religious group has come out against it having a right to discriminate so extensively: the Unitarian Universalist Association. They and they alone support the right of their own employees to sue them if discriminated against. Every other religious group in the United States which has staked out a position opposes the right of employees to challenge the institutions' discriminatory policies or practices.
And do note that this isn't simply a matter of a Muslim organization discriminating against Catholics or Buddhists -- which is bad enough when the job isn't actually religious. This is about discriminating on the basis of any characteristic at all: race, gender, politics, marital status, parental status, health, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Anything that anyone might in theory have a religious objection to would be a legal basis for discrimination.
If religious groups win what would amount to a free pass to discriminate at will, without any meaningful constraints, what's to stop every company from becoming a "church" of some sort? That would allow them to do whatever they want with all their employees, designating them all "ministers" of some sort then disregarding all legislation designed to protect workers' rights and interests.
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