Quote of the Day on the Ministerial Exception

The invaluable SCOTUSblog site has been running a series of discussions on the cases pending before the Supreme Court this term, including the (much discussed here at MOJ) ministerial exception case, Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC. Read the whole exchange (including the contributions from our own Tom Berg), but I thought this brief comment by Kevin Baine of Williams & Connolly--one of the best lawyers I've ever had the privilege of working with--was a powerful and pointed summary of the issues:

The fundamental question in this case is whether those who seek to serve a church in a religious capacity may invoke the power of the state in support of their desire to serve—or whether the church has the right to choose those who perform religious functions without regard to secular standards and without interference by the state. I think the Religion Clauses answer that question. If the notion of separation of church and state means anything, it means that there is a zone of church affairs that the state is powerless to regulate, and I think that zone has to include the right of a church to select its ministers. The state should no more be able to set the criteria for church office than the church should be able to set the criteria for state office.