When an elementary school teacher named Cheryl Perich collapsed during a school field trip, a chain of events unfolded that led to her suing her school for disability discrimination. Perich wasn’t just a teacher, however; she was a commissioned minister, a formal rank within her church, which meant that the ministerial exception, the legal doctrine prohibiting ministers from suing their churches over employment matters, could apply to her case.

Is there a ministerial exception under the First Amendment? Was Cheryl Perich a minister as well as a teacher? Prof. Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia School of Law explores the ministerial exception in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC. 

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As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.

Learn more about Douglas Laycock:
https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/hdl5c/2210483

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Related Links & Differing Views:

SCOTUSblog: “Opinion recap: A solid ‘ministerial exception’”
https://www.scotusblog.com/2012/01/opinion-recap-a-solid-ministerial-exception/

Harvard Law Review: “Leading Cases: Freedom of Religion: Ministerial Exception”
https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/vol126_hosanna_tabor_v_EEOC1.pdf

Northwestern University Law Review: “The Irony of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC”
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=nulr

The First Amendment Encyclopedia: “Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012)”
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1460/hosanna-tabor-evangelical-lutheran-church-and-school-v-eeoc

Virginia Law Review: “Waiving the Ministerial Exception”
https://www.virginialawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/West_Online.pdf