Justices to Again Weigh Religious Defense in Job Bias Suits (1)

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide the extent to which religious organizations can be exempt from discrimination lawsuits filed by their employees, settling a divide in courts over how broad that defense should be.

The justices Dec. 18 said they would examine, in two separate lawsuits, whether two Catholic schools in California could claim they were immune from the wrongful termination and bias lawsuits filed by two teachers. The outcome has the potential to expand the scope of the “ministerial exception,” a court-created doctrine that says the First Amendment prohibits lawsuits against religious organizations for hiring ...