by Jean Marc Favreau | Jul 8, 2020 | Clergy Employment Issues, Employment Law, Ministerial Exception, Supreme Court
In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the ministerial exception permits religiously affiliated schools to fire employees for discriminatory reasons. In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the Court’s majority held that two Catholic school...
by Jean Marc Favreau | Oct 9, 2017 | Clergy Employment Issues, Parsonage
Parsonage Exemption Imperiled Again On Friday, October 6, Judge Barbara Crabb of the United States District Court for the District of Washington, issued a ruling holding that the parsonage exemption to the tax code violates the U.S. Constitution. The tax exemption...
by Josh Scharff | Oct 25, 2016 | Clergy Employment Issues
In 2011, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (“FFRF”) challenged the constitutionality of the parsonage tax exemption contained in Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 107 allows clergy to exclude certain housing expenses from their gross income. FFRF’s...
by Josh Scharff | Oct 13, 2016 | Clergy Employment Issues, Employment Law, Title VII
Music is a vital part of worship for many religions. But at what point should a musician be considered a religious minister? The answer to this question has legal ramifications for musicians who work at congregations, schools, and/or other religious institutions....
by Mark Gisler | Oct 6, 2016 | Clergy Employment Issues, Labor Law, NLRB, Union Organizing
NLRB Exerts Jurisdiction over Secular Teachers in Church-Operated Schools In two recent cases involving faculty bargaining units at Catholic universities, the NLRB evolved the test for determining whether certain faculty of church-operated schools come within the...
by Josh Scharff | Jun 17, 2016 | Clergy Employment Issues, Family Leave
Yesterday, NPR’s Cheryl Corley reported that Chicago’s Catholic Archdiocese will offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave to its employees beginning on July 1. The Chicago Archdiocese employs approximately 15,000 employees and is the third largest archdiocese in the...
by Josh Scharff | Feb 12, 2015 | Clergy Employment Issues
Earlier this month, the Sixth Circuit addressed the “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination employment laws in Conlon v. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, et al. This was the first time the Sixth Circuit considered the ministerial exception since the Supreme...
by Josh Scharff | Nov 13, 2014 | Clergy Employment Issues
Earlier today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated the Western District of Wisconsin’s decision in Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Lew and ordered the case to be dismissed. This case was before the Seventh Circuit after Federal...
by Josh Scharff | Sep 11, 2014 | Clergy Employment Issues
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments on Tuesday regarding the constitutionality of the parsonage exemption for clergy. The case Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Lew is before the Seventh Circuit after Judge Barbara Crabb...
by Josh Scharff | Jul 31, 2014 | Clergy Employment Issues, Employment Law
Employees of certain religious institutions, which can include religious schools, congregations, and faith-based nonprofit organizations, are sometimes confronted with a “morals clause” in their employment agreements. In the context of a religious employer-employee...
