A ministerial-exception case to watch in Cincinnati

The Washington Post reports that a jury found that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati unlawfully discriminated against a Catholic-school teacher whom it fired after she became pregnant via artificial insemination.  The jury awarded the teacher more than $170,000 (including $100,000 in punitive damages).  The trial court had disallowed the ministerial-exception argument because the "computer technology teacher" had no "ministerial duties." 

The Archdiocese also argued that the teacher was fired for not complying with her contract, but the fired teacher, "who is not Catholic, had testified she didn’t know artificial insemination violated church doctrine or her employment pact.  She said she thought the contract clause about abiding by church teachings meant she should be a Christian and follow the Bible."

As many (including several of us here at MOJ) have noted, the Supreme Court's important ruling in Hosanna-Tabor did not resolve the debate over the scope and coverage of the ministerial exception.  My own view is that a teacher -- of any subject and whether or not that teacher is Catholic -- in a diocesan school is a "minister" but . . . stay tuned.