On Wednesday of July 8, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that religious schools are allowed to handpick their teachers.
The Supreme Court voted 7-2 against 2 teachers who were fired from their jobs. This ruling allows religious schools to have the freedom of choosing who teaches their faith to their students.
The former teachers sued two Catholic schools for firing them. However, the court ruled that religious freedom interdicted the former teachers from suing for employment discrimination heightening a new tension between workers' rights and church authority.
Justice Samuel Alito explained the court's decision in a statement, "The religious education and formation of students is the very reason for the existence of most private religious schools, and therefore the selection and supervision of the teachers upon whom the schools rely to do this work lie at the core of their mission,"
"Judicial review of the way in which religious schools discharge those responsibilities would undermine the independence of religious institutions in a way that the Frist Amendment does not tolerate," Alito explained.
However, two Justices--Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg--were against the court's majority opinion and criticized it as having "no basis in law and strips thousands of schoolteachers of their legal protections."
"The Court's apparent deference here threatens to make nearly anyone whom the schools might hire 'ministers' unprotected from discrimination in the hiring process," Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued.
The recent court ruling of "Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru" clearly stated that the First Amendment prevents the government from intervening in the employment decisions of religious groups.
Similarly, the Supreme Court has upheld the rights of religious schools once again to stay uninterrupted by the government in the employment process.
