Catholic School Teacher’s Job Bias Claim Revived

A Catholic elementary school in Los Angeles must face a worker’s allegations that she was fired because she had breast cancer and needed time off for treatment, a divided federal appeals court ruled.

St. James School failed to show Kristen Biel was a “minister” in her role as a fifth-grade teacher, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held. That meant the school wasn’t exempt from Biel’s claim that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it told her it wasn’t going to renew her contract, a 2-1 appeals court said.

There was “no religious component” to ...