Federal Court: Labor Board Can't Judge Catholic Schools’ Religious Mission

The National Catholic Register ^ | 1/31/20 | CNA

[marshmallow]

Duquesne, a Catholic school of about 6,000 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students, is the only U.S.-based university affiliated with the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

Washington D.C. — Longstanding court precedent has recognized religious schools’ right to pursue their mission in faculty employment decisions, and so the National Labor Relations Board wrongly claimed jurisdiction over Duquesne University, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has said in a decision vacating the board's recognition of a labor union for adjunct faculty.

“Just like churches, schools may pursue a religious mission. Indeed, education is at the core of religious activity for many Americans,” Judge Thomas Griffith said in the 2-1 decision issued Jan. 28. Court precedent has recognized teachers’ “critical and unique role” in “fulfilling the mission of a church-operated school,” he said.

“This holds true regardless of whether the teacher provides instruction in religious or secular subjects,” Griffith continued. “Given this vital role played by teachers, exercising jurisdiction over disputes involving teachers at any church-operated school presented a ‘significant risk that the First Amendment will be infringed’.”

He cited the NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago 1979 Supreme Court decision, which sided with the Catholic schools' refusal to recognize a teachers’ union. The Supreme Court held that the labor board lacked jurisdiction over all teachers at church-operated schools.

Similar cases said this reasoning applied to religious colleges and universities, according to Griffith. Various precedents deny the labor board the ability to inquire about the relationship of faculty to religious mission for fear of chilling effect on the free exercise of religion and disrupting a community's ability to define itself.

[SuperLuminal]

Excellent!

[daniel1212]

Related: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-553.pdf

In HOSANNA-TABOR EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH AND SCHOOL vs. EEO, the Supreme Court ruled(in favor of the former vs, the gov.) that “Since the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964and other employment discrimination laws, the Courts of Appeals have uniformly recognized the existence of a ‘ministerial exception,,’ grounded in the First Amendment...”

“The Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment bar suits brought on behalf of ministers against their churches, claiming termination in violation of employment discrimination laws.”

[Blood of Tyrants]

Good. DemocRats think they can control everyone and everything.

[circlecity]

Big win.