A New York federal appeals court rejected an ex-Catholic school principal's request to overturn a previous decision that protected churches' right to choose their own religious leaders late Wednesday.
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in July dismissed Joanne Fratello's lawsuit against the Archdiocese of New York alleging that sex discrimination led the Church to not renew her contract as principal at St. Anthony's School. The archdiocese denied any discrimination and also asserted the "ministerial exception," which prohibits the government or the courts from interfering in hiring and employment decisions for those who advance the faith.
The Court agreed the role of principal at a Catholic school fell under that protection.
"We conclude that the plaintiff's claims are barred because she is a minister within the meaning of the exception," the court ruled. "Although her formal title was not inherently religious, the record reflects that, as part of her job responsibilities, she held herself out as a spiritual leader of the school and performed many religious functions to advance its religious mission."
Fratello's attorney, Michael Diederich filed a request for en banc review, a rare legal maneuver in which every judge in a circuit hears the case. The petition said the court decision violated the separation of church and state and argued that allowing religious schools to make hiring decisions represented the "death knell for our democracy" as churches begin "prostituting children into conformity." He also warned that the Court's opinion "will be remembered as the Dred Scott of religious liberty cases."
"Like Dred Scott, it will be correctly seen as the judiciary ignoring the rights of an individual for the sake of powerful interests, there slave owners and here, the Roman Catholic Church and Christian Right," the petition said. "Thus, 'religious' elementary schools and high schools will be able to ignore State law with impunity, teaching only what they want taught."
The Court dismissed the petition on Wednesday, saying the plaintiffs failed to file the request in a timely manner and that the "counsel's vacation schedule" was not an adequate excuse for the delay.
Attorneys for the archdiocese celebrated the decision as a victory for religious freedom. The Becket Fund, the nonprofit legal defense fund that defended the archdiocese, said the petition filed by Fratello reflected "anti-religious bigotry."
"The Court made the right decision. Fratello’s tardy attempt to drag out this already overlong lawsuit wasn’t just a day late and a dollar short, it was stuffed with anti-religious bigotry," attorney Daniel Blomberg said in a statement. "The Court was right today just as it was last month when it protected the right of religious groups everywhere to select their religious leaders, free from Uncle Sam’s control."
The ministerial exception has faced other legal and political challenges in recent years. However, the Supreme Court settled the issue with its unanimous Hosanna-Tabor decision in 2012, in which the court rebuked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for bringing disability discrimination charges against a Lutheran school on behalf of a dismissed teacher. Chief Justice John Roberts ruled, "it is impermissible for the government to contradict a church’s determination of who can act as its ministers." The Appeals Court said Fratello's case echoed the circumstances set in Hosana-Tabor.
"The Supreme Court in Hosanna‐Tabor made clear that the First Amendment does not tolerate a judicial remedy for any minister claiming employment discrimination against his or her religious group, regardless of the group's asserted reason (if any) for the adverse employment action," the court ruled.
Diederich denied having any anti-religious bias, saying that the archdiocese is infringing on "my client's personal religious beliefs." He said the three-judge panel erred in treating lay employees as ministers and hopes that a full panel re-hearing of the case could advance Fratello's case.
"The federal courts were wrong in granting absolute immunity, 'ministerial immunity,' to the Roman Catholic Church in this case, and to deny the employee her statutory and constitutional rights," he said in an email to the Free Beacon. "My client has been deprived of her civil rights, because she chose to be a lay employee at a Church-affiliated private school."
He filed a motion for panel reconsideration on Thursday.
Update 1:37 p.m.: This story has been updated with a response from plaintiff's counsel Michael Diederich.