Catherine Rusoff
A Catholic school in North Carolina had the right to fire a gay teacher who announced his marriage on social media a decade ago, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, reversing a ruling judge’s previous decision.
A panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, reversed a 2021 decision that Charlotte Catholic High School and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte violated Lonnie Billard’s federal employment protections against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The school said Billard was not asked to return as a substitute teacher because of his “advocacy for a position that opposes what the church teaches about marriage,” a court document said.
U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn ruled that Billard — a full-time teacher for a decade until 2012 — was a lay employee with the limited purpose of teaching secular classes. Cogburn said a trial will still have to be held to determine the appropriate relief for him. A 2020 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court stated that Title VII also protected workers who were fired for being gay or transgender.
But Justice Pamela Harris, writing Wednesday’s prevailing opinion, said Billard fell within a “ministerial exception” to Title VII that courts derived from the First Amendment that protects religious institutions in how they treat employees “who perform tasks so central to their religious activities”. missions – even if the tasks themselves do not advertise their religious nature.”
This included Billard — who taught English primarily as a substitute and who previously did theater when working full time — because Charlotte Catholic expected instructors to integrate faith throughout the curriculum, Harris wrote. And the school’s apparent expectation that Billard be ready to teach religion as needed speaks to his role in the school’s religious mission, she added.
“The record makes clear that (Charlotte Catholic) considered it “vital” to its religious mission that its teachers bring a Catholic perspective to Shakespeare as well as the Bible,” wrote Harris, who was appointed to the court at the time of President Barack Obama. . “Our court has already recognized that seemingly secular tasks, such as teaching English and theater, can be so imbued with religious significance as to imply the ministerial exception.”
Billard, who processed in 2017began working at the school in 2001. He met his now-husband in 2000 and announced his decision to marry shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in North Carolina in 2014.
On a Press releaseThe American Civil Liberties Union and a Charlotte law firm that helped Billard file his lawsuit lamented Wednesday’s reversal as “a painful decision for our client who wanted nothing more than the freedom to perform his duties as an educator without hiding who he is or who he Love is.”
“While today’s decision is narrowly tailored to Mr. Billard and the facts of his employment, it still threatens to violate that principle by widening the loopholes that employers can use to fire people like Mr. Billard for blatantly discriminatory reasons,” it said the joint statement. .
An attorney for a group that defended the Charlotte diocese hailed the ruling as “a victory for people of all faiths who value the freedom to pass on their faith to the next generation.” The diocese operates 20 schools throughout western North Carolina.
“The Supreme Court has been absolutely clear on this issue: Catholic schools have the freedom to choose teachers who fully support Catholic teaching,” said Luke Goodrich of the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom. Attorneys general from nearly 20 liberal-leaning states as well as lawyers for Christian denominations and schools and other organizations have filed briefs in the case.
Judge Paul Niemeyer, appointed by former President George HW Bush, joined Harris’ opinion. Justice Robert King, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote a separate opinion, saying he agreed with the reversal while also questioning the use of the ministerial exemption. Instead, he wrote, Charlotte Catholic fell under a separate exemption in Title VII for religious educational institutions that fire an employee.
Billard told CNN he was “very disappointed” with the court’s decision.
“There is a lot of case law that supports me. But my biggest feeling is confusion,” he told the network. “I just felt like you can’t tell people who you can love and who you can marry. That’s not right, you can’t, you shouldn’t be able to fire someone because they love someone else. What did I do.”
