Catholic School Sues NY Labor Board After Staff Union Complaint

The New York Public Employment Relations Board shouldn’t enforce a state labor law on a Catholic university because it would violate the school’s religious rights under the First Amendment, according to a new lawsuit.

The board’s assertion of jurisdiction over St. John’s University “impermissibly entangles the government” in the institution’s religious mission, the school said in a complaint filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York Monday.

The school withdrew recognition from its faculty union to “reassert its First Amendment right to govern itself in accordance with its Catholic and Vincentian identity.” The union then filed ...