Split 4th Circuit Panel: Gay Catholic School Teacher Is ‘Ministerial’

(May 9, 2024, 9:27 AM EDT) -- RICHMOND, Va. — A Catholic high school teacher who was not invited back to work due to his engagement to his same-sex partner served in a role that qualified as “ministerial” as he “‘serve[d] as a messenger or teacher of the faith’ covered by the ministerial exception,” a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 8, reversing a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the teacher despite the school and other defendants waiving as a defense the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s “ministerial exception.”...