Labor & Employment Law

WI - State law age discrimination claim was barred by "ministerial exception" (4-3)

A first grade teacher at a Catholic school brought an age discrimination claim against Coulee Catholic Schools under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (WFEA). The trial court rejected the employer?s assertion that the employee fell within the "ministerial exception" under the 1st Amendment and its state counterpart. The appellate court below affirmed. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin reversed by a vote of 4 to 3. Coulee Catholic Schools v. Lab & Ind Review Commn (Wisconsin 07/21/2009)

The court concluded that

"both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Freedom of Conscience Clauses in Article I, Section 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution preclude employment discrimination claims under Sections 111.31 to 111.395 of the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act for employees whose positions are important and closely linked to the religious mission of a religious organization."

The court noted that "[t]he better way to view the ministerial exception is from what might be called the ?functional? approach." Under that approach, the key question is "whether a position is important to the spiritual and pastoral mission of the church." The court also noted that "[t]he primary concern here is the function of the employee, not only the enumerated tasks themselves."

The Dissenters said:

[O]ur court is reaching the anomalous conclusion that a first-grade lay schoolteacher at a Catholic school fits within the narrow "ecclesiastical"1 exception barring adjudication of her age discrimination suit against her employer. To reach that conclusion, the majority improvidently alters the primary duties test that Wisconsin courts and a significant majority of other jurisdictions have applied when confronted with the question of whether to apply the ecclesiastical exception. I disagree with the majority's conclusion that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the freedom of conscience clauses in Article I, Section 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution preclude adjudication of this claim.

Full post as published by Ross' Employment Law Blog on July 24, 2009 (boomark / email).