OHIO
Think Progress

BY IAN MILLHISER JUNE 9, 2014

Last March, the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio revealed a new contract imposing sweeping limits on the speech and conduct of the schoolteachers it employs. Among other things, the contract forbids teachers from engaging in “improper use of social media/communication, public support of or publicly living together outside of marriage; public support of or sexual activity out of wedlock; public support of/or homosexual lifestyle; public support of/or use of abortion; public support of/or use of a surrogate mother; [and] public support or use of in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination.”

At least some of these restrictions are likely violations of various laws prohibiting discrimination. The ban on “use of in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination,” for example, violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act according to at least one federal appeals court. Similarly, while Cincinnati’s ban on anti-gay discrimination exempts “any religious…