She won her lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act. St. James appealed. Then last year, she died due to the illness. Her husband Darryl has continued the disputation.
Agnes Morrissey-Berru is the other instructor. She instructed for 16 years at Our Lady of Guadalupe School but was fired given her performance. She said it was because of age discrimination.
The schools leaned on authoritative examples from the Supreme Court providing religious institutions with “ministerial exceptions” from statutes to which other owners of religious institutions are privy. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided that the instructors should be able to argue their side in court, causing the pair of schools to ask for the Supreme Court to go over the cases.
Over the course of oral argument Monday, which took place over the phone and was aired live due to COVID-19, both progressive and conservative judges voiced worry about declaring finality on occupational definitions. They asked: if a religion instructor can be terminated at any time, what about a core curriculum instructor, recreational instructor, custodian, bus driver or nurse?
