6th Circuit bars bias suit by fired Christian school dean

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DETROIT — An employee who was fired by a private elementary school in Muskegon Heights, Michigan, could not bring discrimination claims under state and federal statutes, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

The plaintiff was fired from his job as the dean of students and assistant principal at defendant Westshore Christian Academy. His complaint raised a number of employment discrimination claims under state and federal law, claiming the defendant discriminated against him because of his race and sex.

The defendant argued that the plaintiff’s position carried certain religious functions that, under the doctrine of ecclesiastical abstention and the “ministerial exception,” precluded federal and state courts from adjudicating his claims.

A U.S. District Court judge awarded the school summary judgment, finding that the nature of the plaintiff’s position and his job functions placed him within the category of employees covered by the ministerial exception.

“The doctrine now ‘dubbed’ the ‘ministerial exception’ stands for the longstanding proposition that the First and Fourteenth Amendments preclude application of state and federal ‘laws governing the employment relationship between a religious institution and certain key employees,’” Judge John K. Bush wrote for a three-judge 6th Circuit panel.

“No one disputes that the Academy is the type of religious entity that can avail itself of the exception,” he noted.

“The question, then, is whether [the plaintiff] was the type of employee covered by the exception. We hold that he was. [The plaintiff] played an important role in furthering the school’s mission to provide for the religious education and formation of students. Judicial review of the way in which the Academy chooses who should fill that type of role ‘would undermine the independence of religious institutions in a way that the First Amendment does not tolerate,’” Bush stated.

The 11-page decision is Pulsifer v. Westshore Christian Academy.