Document Type

Brief

Case Name

Rev. Dr. William Lee v. Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church of Pittsburgh

Publication Date

4-25-2018

Abstract

No. 17-3086
Rev. Dr. William Lee v. Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church of Pittsburgh

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
No. 2:15-cv-01599-NBF

From the Introduction

In Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 565 U.S. 171, 190 (2012), the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that there is a "ministerial exception" grounded in the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. This exception forbids the government from "interfer[ing] with the internal governance of the church" and "depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs." Id. at 188.

Reverend Lee nonetheless claims that the ministerial exception does not apply and his breach-of-contract claim should proceed because it differs in kind from the antidiscrimination claim at issue in Hosanna-Tabor. Opening Br. 14-15. As shown below, Reverend Lee's position is inconsistent with Hosanna-Tabor's reasoning and the precedent and long history giving rise to the ministerial exception.

Comments

Amici teach and write about the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment in general, and church autonomy and the ministerial exception in particular.

See the listing on pages 1-4, including Notre Dame Law School's Richard W. Garnett.

Table of Authorities includes:

Richard W. Garnett, Religion and Group Rights: Are Churches (Just) Like the Boy Scouts?, 22 St. John's J. Legal Comment. 515 (2007)

Richard W. Garnett & John M. Robinson, Hosanna-Tabor, Religious Freedom, and the Constitutional Structure, 2011-2012 Cato Sup. Ct. Rev. 307

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