Justice Department supports Indianapolis Archdiocese in firing of gay Cathedral teacher
By Arika Herron September 27, 2019
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday issued a Statement of Interest in support of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in its ongoing dispute with a former Catholic school teacher who alleges he was wrongfully terminated because he was in a same-sex marriage.
Joshua Payne-Elliott is currently suing the archdiocese, alleging it illegally interfered with his contractual and employment relationship with Cathedral High School, causing Cathedral to terminate him.
In it’s statement, the DOJ said that the First Amendment protects the right of the Archdiocese to interpret and apply Catholic doctrine.
It’s not clear what the DOJ’s statement means for Payne-Elliott’s suit, if anything. But his lawyer, Kathleen DeLaney, said it was “highly unusual” for the Justice Department to insert itself into a local employment issue.
“What I take away from this is that the Trump administration is politicizing a legal dispute about an Indiana business tort.” DeLaney said.
Steve Sanders, a constitutional law expert, said it’s not that uncommon for presidential administrations of both parties to file statements in “important civil rights cases.”
Sanders, a professor at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, said such statements are more about “making a political statement,” and this one is not likely to have much of an impact.
“I fear that this statement from the Trump administration’s Justice Department appears to be more calculated to win favor with the president’s base of religious conservatives than it does to seriously assist the court’s adjudication of this case,” Sanders said.
He added: “The Archdiocese may or may not prevail in the end, but the issue is not as one-sided, and the outcome is not nearly as clear, as the Justice Department statement portrays them to be.”
What is the lawsuit really about?
DeLaney said the case isn’t about religious liberty, but instead centers on an employment dispute.
“Josh Payne-Elliot was employed by Cathedral High School,” she said. “Cathedral High School fired my client because the archdiocese told them to and threatened to take various actions against Cathedral if they refused to fire my client.
“That is textbook intentional interference in an employment relationship. He was not employed by the archdiocese but the archdiocese had him fired.”
But it’s clear the Department of Justice is taking a different view of the matter. The Statement of Interest notes that the United States has a “substantial interest in religious liberty.”
The point was echoed by United States Attorney Josh Minkler.
“If the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses stand for anything, it is that secular courts cannot entangle themselves in questions of religious law,” Minkler said.
The archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DeLaney said she intends to ask the court to strike the statement from the case record or allow other outside parties to file their own opinions.
Payne-Elliott’s case was filed in Marion County Superior Court in July.
The dispute between the Indianapolis Archdiocese and Catholic schools
When Payne-Elliott filed his suit, he said in a news release that he hoped the case would “put a stop to the targeting of LGBTQ employees and their families.”
He is one of the three gay, married Catholic school employees fired in the last year at the direction of the archdiocese, who said they were in violation of church doctrine by being in same-sex marriages.
The employees worked at multiple schools under the purview of the Church.
Aside from Payne-Elliott, two guidance counselors were fired from Roncalli High School earlier this year.
In addition, Payne-Elliott’s husband, Layton Payne-Elliott, is a teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School. The archdiocese stripped Brebeuf of its Catholic identity after it refused to fire Layton Payne-Elliott. The Vatican recently suspended that ruling, pending an appeal from the school.
Officials at Cathedral have said they would have suffered the same fate if they had not terminated Joshua Payne-Elliot’s employment.
Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson has previously disputed Payne-Elliot’s claim that the church is targeting LGBTQ employees.
Rather, Thompson said, the archdiocese has a right to set whatever rules it wants for its schools and employees.
The archdiocese began requiring a morality clause in teacher, administrator and counselor contracts at some of its schools four years ago, and at all Catholic schools two years ago. In his lawsuit, Payne-Elliott says he never signed a contract with that language.
“Religious liberty, which is a hallmark of the U.S. constitution and has been tested in the U.S. Supreme Court, acknowledges that religious organizations may define what conduct is acceptable and contrary to the teachings of its religion, for its school leaders, guidance counselors, teachers and other ministers of faith,” the archdiocese said after Payne-Elliott’s case was filed in July.
What the Justice Department’s action means for the lawsuit
A statement of interest is described in court documents as a statement that speaks to the interests of the United States in a pending suit.
It is not a ruling.
“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of religious institutions and people to decide what their beliefs are, to teach their faith, and to associate with others who share their faith,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division said. “The First Amendment rightly protects the free exercise of religion.”
The Justice Department’s statement of interest also said courts “cannot second-guess how religious institutions interpret and apply their own religious laws.”
Sanders, the constitutional law expert in Indiana, said the Justice Department’s argument is a superficial assessment of the legal issues at hand and could cause courts to ignore it based on its legal merits.
“This…takes a complex and difficult issue and oversimplifies it in a way that might cause the court to disregard (it) as not a serious piece of legal argumentation,” he said.
Where the other fired teachers stand
DeLaney is also representing Lynn Starkey, one of the two Roncalli counselors fired for their same-sex marriages.
Starkey filed a lawsuit in federal court against Roncalli and the archdiocese, alleging that she was subjected to discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation.
The DOJ statement of interest does not specifically address Starkey’s lawsuit.
The other Roncalli counselor, Shelly Fitzgerald, is expected to file a similar lawsuit in the coming weeks.
Staff writers Justin L. Mack and Crystal Hill contributed to this report.
Source: Indy Star
