The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition by a Massachusetts Christian college seeking a religious “ministerial exception” to help it avoid a discrimination lawsuit brought by a professor denied a promotion.
However, the denial of certiorari, due to a procedural matter, was sympathetic to Gordon College and left the door open for it to come back to the high court if it loses at trial in Massachusetts.
The ministerial exception protects churches and other religious institutions from discrimination claims in the selection of employees who play certain key roles.
Gordon College requires all of its faculty to sign a Christian statement of faith. The school’s handbook also states that the most important task of the “Christian educator” is the “integration” of faith and learning.
Margaret DeWeese-Boyd was hired as a faculty member in Gordon College’s department of social work in 1998. DeWeese-Boyd’s employment application acknowledged “personal agreement with Gordon’s Statement of Faith, stated her Christian beliefs, described her pilgrimage as a Christian, [and] explained how her Christian commitment affected her scholarship,” according to the court. In 2009, when DeWeese-Boyd applied for tenure, she submitted a paper that discussed her “integration of the Christian faith into her work.”
In 2016, when DeWeese-Boyd applied for promotion to full professor, she explained that she thought the “work of integration” required “pursuing scholarship that is faithful to the mandates of Scripture, the vocational call of Christ, and the dictates of conscience.” Student evaluations, also included in the 2016 application, stated that she “did a great job of connecting class materials with Christian faith.”
Gordon College denied her a promotion, citing lack of scholarly productivity, among other things. DeWeese-Boyd sued, alleging that the college had actually denied her a promotion because of “her vocal opposition to [the college’s] policies and practices regarding individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.”
The parties sought summary judgment on whether the ministerial exception barred DeWeese-Boyd’s claims. The trial court ruled in favor of DeWeese-Boyd, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court later affirmed that the ministerial exception did not shield the college in this case because it found DeWeese-Boyd did not qualify as a “minister” under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions.
The state court reasoned that DeWeese-Boyd did not “undergo formal religious training, pray with her students, participate in or lead religious services, take her students to chapel services, or teach a religious curriculum.” Though the court recognized that she was required to “integrate the Christian faith into her teaching, scholarship, and advising,” the court reasoned that this integrated teaching was “different in kind” from religious instruction.
After the state’s highest court found it was not entitled to avoid trial, Gordon College petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court.
In his statement of denial of certiorari, Associate Justice Samuel Alito criticized the Massachusetts high court for its understanding of the ministerial exception.
“That conclusion reflects a troubling and narrow view of religious education,” Alito wrote. “What many faiths conceive of as ‘religious education’ includes much more than instruction in explicitly religious doctrine or theology.”
Citing a brief supporting the college, Alioto added that “many religious schools ask their teachers to ‘show students how to view the world through a faith-based lens,’ even when teaching nominally secular subjects.”
Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney-Barrett joined in Alito’s statement.
The high court denied certiorari because it said ruling before the state trial was completed would complicate the review. “But in an appropriate future case, this Court may be required to resolve this important question of religious liberty,” Alito wrote.
Also, the statement notes that if Gordon College loses and DeWeese-Boyd prevails in the trial court, “there is nothing that would preclude Gordon [College] from appealing at that time, including seeking review in this Court when the decision is actually final.”
Topics Lawsuits USA Massachusetts Education Training Development Universities
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