Federal court upholds Catholic school’s right to dismiss religion teacherNov 16, 2004 From: The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
1350 Connecticut Avenue NW – Suite 605
Washington, D.C. 20036
Contact: Jared N. Leland, Esq.: (202) 349-7206
Kelly Jane Torrance: (202) 349-7202
Rubenstein Associates, Inc. Public Relations -- (212) 843-8085
Contact: Jim Grossman
For Immediate Release: Nov. 16, 2004
Federal court upholds Catholic school’s right to dismiss religion teacher
who publicly opposed the Church’s teaching against abortion;
Becket Fund calls decision “a victory for religious institutions and schools throughout the country”
The United States District Court in Delaware dismissed today claims against a Catholic school that terminated the employment of a religion teacher who publicly opposed the Church’s teaching against abortion. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—a public interest law firm, based in Washington DC, dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions—was Of Counsel for all defendants. The ruling was made by Judge Kent Jordan, Civil Action No. 03-1014-KAJ.
“Judge Jordan’s decision is a victory for religious institutions and schools throughout the country,” declared The Becket Fund’s Media and Legal Counsel Jared N. Leland, one of the attorneys working on the case. “The First Amendment right of religious schools and institutions to freely govern their own affairs and appoint their own officials—whether school teacher or preacher—has been preserved.”
Michele Curay-Cramer taught Religion and English at Ursuline Academy, a Catholic independent school in Wilmington, Delaware. On January 22, 2003, her name appeared among the signers of a statement endorsing abortion rights in a full-page ad in The News Journal, Wilmington's daily newspaper. She was subsequently dismissed from her position. A month later, she filed an employment discrimination complaint with the E.E.O.C., which was dismissed in August. In November, she filed suit in federal court against Ursuline Academy, two Ursuline employees, the Diocese of Wilmington, and its Bishop, Michael Saltarelli.
In an unequivocal decision released today, District Judge Kent Jordan dismissed all of Curay-Cramer’s claims. He called her argument that the Catholic school was not a religious institution “patently absurd” and “illogical.”
Asking the court to apply federal employment law in this case would raise “substantial constitutional questions,” Judge Jordan wrote: “Short of a declaration that the Pope should pass draft encyclicals through the courts for approval, it is hard to conceive of a more obvious violation of the free exercise rights of the Catholic Church or a clearer case of inappropriate entanglement of church and state.”
He concluded, “It is not the place of this or any other court to say what system of beliefs constitutes ‘true’ Catholicism or makes for a ‘good’ Catholic. Ours is a system which, wonderfully, forbids any intrusion of the sort.”
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