Religious Use Law in South Florida
On May 22, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued a one-sentence order affirming the judgment of the Oklahoma Supreme Court in the consolidated cases of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, and St....more
Welcome to our fourth issue of The Academic Advisor for 2025. In this edition, we cover the following topics of interest for schools, institutions of higher education, and other education-focused organizations: - How a...more
On April 30, 2025, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the consolidated cases of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. If the...more
On January 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court granted two petitions for certiorari in the cases of Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond,...more
On January 24, 2025, the Court granted certiorari in three cases: Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond, Nos. 24-394, 24-396: These consolidated...more
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that Illinois has joined an $82.5 million proposed antitrust settlement with Varsity Brands (Varsity). As a result, Illinois consumers who paid to participate in Varsity Brands’...more
On May 8, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a monumental opinion in Billard v. Charlotte Catholic High School. Senior Judge Harris, joined by Judge Niemeyer, wrote the majority opinion....more
Supreme Court Decides Freedom of Speech Trumps Public Accommodations Law In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, No. 21-476 (June 30, 2023), the U.S. Supreme Court reversed 6-3 the lower courts' denial of the injunction the plaintiff...more
In Ratliff v. Wycliffe Assoc., Inc., No. 6:22-cv-1185-PGB-RMN, 2023 WL 3688082 (M.D. Fla. May 26, 2023), the plaintiff, a software developer, sued the defendant, a Bible translation ministry, for sex discrimination under...more
Over the past decade, federal courts have repeatedly reviewed religious-affiliated employers' ability to avoid federal discrimination claims. Courts recognize a "ministerial exception" that prevents discrimination claims by...more
Win in Court doesn’t Assure More Pennsylvania School Funding - “Pennsylvania is the latest state where the public school funding system was found to be unconstitutional, but the experience in other states suggests there’s...more
Historically, the ability of a governmental conduit issuer to issue bonds to facilitate a financing for a religious organization or a religiously affiliated school, university, senior housing facility or other nonprofit...more
The United States Supreme Court holding in Carson v. Makin could result in public assistance for religiously affiliated institutions of higher education. The Court ruled that Maine’s tuition assistance program is an...more
The Supreme Court term that ended today once again showed the power of the First Amendment to shape American life. The court invoked the First Amendment in cases regulating social media platforms, prayer at public schools,...more
Religious Exemption to States' Mandatory Vaccination Statute Not Necessary In Does 1-6 v. Mills, No. 1:21-cv-00242, 2021 WL 4783626 (D. Me. Oct. 13, 2021), the court denied injunctive relief to plaintiff healthcare workers...more
Recently, the 9th Circuit applied, in an unpublished opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court’s broad definition of minister for purposes of the “ministerial exception.” Under the ministerial exception, religious institutions have a...more
Ministerial Exception Doctrine Bars Minister-on-Minister Hostile Work Environment Claim In Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, Calumet City, No. 19-2142, 2021 WL 2880232 (7th Cir. July 9, 2021), the U.S. Court of...more
Here's what's been going on this week. Some noteworthy labor and employment developments from the past week, in no particular order: Court rules against Christian teacher who wouldn't use kids' names, preferred...more
Title IX has long had an exemption for religious institutions, which was put in place to protect religious rights under the First Amendment. That exemption is now coming under fire. In Hunter v. U.S. Department of Education,...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In the most recent decision to consider the intersection between religion and employment law, Massachusetts’s highest court in DeWeese-Boyd v. Gordon Coll., No. SJC-12988., 2021 WL 841932 (Mass. Mar. 05,...more
The Sunshine State will once again be the center of national attention in what could be one of the first battles before the Biden NLRB regarding the ever-shifting issue of the Board’s jurisdiction over religious educational...more
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 591 U.S. ___, 2020 WL 3808420 (2020) - Agnes Morrissey-Berru and Kristen Biel worked as elementary school teachers at, respectively, Our Lady of Guadalupe School and St....more
On July 8, 2020, the United States Supreme Court decided two cases addressing employers’ religious freedoms in very different contexts: one concerning whether religious school teachers could challenge adverse employment...more
On July 8, 2020, the United States Supreme Court expanded the “ministerial exception” – a legal doctrine that exempts religious employers from certain discrimination laws in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru. ...more
Key Points •The ministerial exception protects religious employers from government interference in internal employment disputes involving the selection, supervision, and removal of individuals who play an important role...more