The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled Monday that religious schools are allowed to screen their employees based on their adherence to the institution's faith.
The Garden State's high court ruled unanimously in favor of St. Theresa School, a Catholic elementary school in the Archdiocese of Newark, for its decision to terminate the contract of a teacher due to her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, in violation of church teaching.
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New Jersey law states that religious institutions are allowed to establish employment criteria based on their faith, Justice Lee Solomon wrote in his opinion, and that it is "an affirmative defense available to a religious entity when confronted with a claim of employment discrimination."
Victoria Crisitello, a former student of St. Theresa's who became an art teacher and toddler room caregiver at the school, was fired from her position after becoming pregnant out of wedlock in 2014. The school cited her violation of church doctrine, which explicitly bars premarital sex — something she agreed to adhere to in her employment contract with the school.
"The religious tenets exception allowed St. Theresa’s to require its employees, as a condition of employment, to abide by Catholic law, including that they abstain from premarital sex," Solomon, an appointee of former Gov. Chris Christie, wrote, adding that premarital abstinence was a "condition of her employment."
Crisitello filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging discrimination due to her pregnancy and marital status. The school maintained to the EEOC that pregnancy was not the source of her termination but rather engaging in sex outside of marriage.
Further, the school cited First Amendment concerns that a ruling against them would allow the court to insert itself on decisions of faith, doctrine, and internal governance. Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox Jewish organization representing the interest of Jewish schools, filed a brief in support of St. Theresa's citing a similar argument.
Agudath Israel retained the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, whose vice president and senior counsel Eric Rassbach argued the position of the organization before the court.
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“Teachers make the school,” Rassbach said. “The whole point of a religious school is to help parents educate their children in their faith. And to do that, schools must have teachers who believe in and follow their faith.”
The court declined to rule on the constitutional questions, citing common practice to use statutory reasoning primarily and only rule on the Constitution "if necessary."