UNITED STATES
Jezebel

Anna North

Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided that a religious institution can fire a minister at will, regardless of federal employment laws. And religious groups may get to choose who they consider to be “ministers.” Here’s why that’s a terrible idea.

According to the Times, Hosanna-Tabor Church v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission involved a teacher named Cheryl Perich, who said she was discriminated against at her Lutheran school due to her narcolepsy. The school ultimately fired her when she pursued a lawsuit against them, saying that was a violation of church doctrine. Now the Supreme Court has decided that though Perich’s religious teaching “consumed only 45 minutes of each workday,” with the rest devoted to secular education, she could be consider a “minister,” whom the school had the right under the First Amendment to fire as it saw fit. In his opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts…