OHIO
Think Progress
BY IAN MILLHISER JUNE 9, 2014
Last March, the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio revealed a new contract imposing sweeping limits on the speech and conduct of the schoolteachers it employs. Among other things, the contract forbids teachers from engaging in “improper use of social media/communication, public support of or publicly living together outside of marriage; public support of or sexual activity out of wedlock; public support of/or homosexual lifestyle; public support of/or use of abortion; public support of/or use of a surrogate mother; [and] public support or use of in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination.”
At least some of these restrictions are likely violations of various laws prohibiting discrimination. The ban on “use of in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination,” for example, violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act according to at least one federal appeals court. Similarly, while Cincinnati’s ban on anti-gay discrimination exempts “any religious corporation, organization, or association,” should a state or federal law be enacted which does not contain this broad exemption, the contract’s ban on a “homosexual lifestyle” would also violate the law.
Which probably explains why, as CNN recently reported, the contract also contains a clause adding “the title ‘ministers’ to all teachers — from geography to gym class.” In a 2012 called Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution “bar[s] the government from interfering with the decision of a religious group to fire one of its ministers.” Thus, the school in that case was able to fire one of its teachers, despite the fact that this firing allegedly violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, because the teacher was also a formally commissioned “Minister of Religion.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.