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Churches’ Freedom Affirmed Again by Federal Court

Her argument “misunderstands the ministerial exception,” Brennan wrote. “What an employee does involves what an employee is entrusted to do, not simply what acts an employee chooses to perform.

“Starkey was a minister because she was entrusted with communicating the Catholic faith to the school’s students and guiding the school’s religious mission,” Brennan wrote in affirming a federal judge’s decision.

In their friend-of-the-court brief, the ERLC and nine other religious organizations said the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause “entitles religious employers to dismiss an employee who violates religious standards.”

“Religious employers require employees to follow religious standards not out of prejudice or spite, but to preserve the integrity of their faith community,” according to the brief.

Joining the ERLC on the brief were The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, National Association of Evangelicals, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Catholic Conference of Illinois, Indiana Catholic Conference, Wisconsin Catholic Conference, Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty and the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team of the Religious Freedom Institute.

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