Minnesota high court wrestles with trans employee rights at Catholic schools

Justices questioned where to draw the constitutional line between religious liberty and worker protections.ST. PAUL, Minn. (CN) — A former Catholic school librarian asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to reinstate her gender identity discrimination suit Tuesday, arguing religious institutions lack broad discretion to deny employment to transgender individuals in secular roles.While religious institutions argue the First Amendment gives them absolute freedom to ensure all staff adhere to religious standards, Reyzl Grace MoChridhe says applying church autonomy to nonministerial roles stretches First Amendment protections beyond established precedent.MoChridhe previously worked as a librarian at the Academy of Holy Angels, a Catholic high school in Richfield, Minnesota, operated under the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.In her complaint, filed in August 2024, she says the academy’s principal told her she could not remain employed if she proceeded with her gender transition despite her “excellent job performance.”MoChridhe told the state Supreme Court Tuesday that, while religious institutions hold broad discretion to hire and fire ministerial staff, employees holding secular positions remain protected under the Minnesota Human Rights Act — meaning lower courts erred by dismissing her lawsuit on church autonomy grounds before allowing factual discovery.“The court of appeals’ unprecedented decision strips even secular employees like MoChridhe of employment law protections,” said her attorney, Greta Wiessner of Gender Justice. “This is not what the First Amendment requires. If it were, a religious institution could invoke its beliefs about race to fire a maintenance worker who enters an interracial marriage.”Still, the justices repeatedly pressed Wiessner on how courts can intervene without stepping on First Amendment rights.“What this case really comes down to is whether the courts can compel any religious institution to hire employees who fundamentally disagree with sincerely held doctrinal beliefs,” Justice Sarah Hennesy said. “Tell me why we, as a court system, should be able to compel a religious institution to do that, to hire someone who fundamentally disagrees with their beliefs?”Hennesy pointed to U.S. Supreme Court precedent establishing that individuals who choose to work for a faith-based institution are effectively agreeing to respect its religious mission as another burden for MoChridhe to overcome — a point echoed by Justice Anne McKeig.“If it is the mission of the church, and it is a lifestyle that is asked to be followed, that seems that it is part of the ecclesiastical doctrine,” McKeig said.Wiessner responded that determining whether an employee is essential to a “religious mission” requires detailed factual evidence unavailable at the motion-to-dismiss stage.The academy and the archdiocese maintain that forcing a Catholic educational institution to employ individuals who do not adhere to its religious teachings directly violates the First Amendment by intruding upon church governance and doctrines.“The complaint in this case seeks to penalize a Catholic archdiocese and a school for maintaining undisputedly sincere religious standards for employment,” said Luke Goodrich, representing both the academy and archdiocese. “It intrudes on an internal church decision that affects the faith and mission of the church.”Justice Karl Procaccini pushed back on Goodrich’s position, questioning whether the religious institutions’ argument would apply in other discrimination complaints across the board, or if they are seeking a specific ruling targeting transgender employees.“You’re not arguing that all hiring and firing decisions fall under the church autonomy doctrine. If you were here on termination of a teacher of color, you wouldn’t be saying as a blanket rule, church autonomy covers hiring and firing,” Procaccini said. “It feels like you want us to create a rule that it’s hiring and firing of trans folks that falls under church autonomy at this early stage when all we have is a complaint.”Procaccini also struggled to pinpoint where in the complaint it was clearly established that church doctrine strictly prohibited employing transgender individuals, noting that without a full factual record of the school’s hiring policies, dismissing the case forces the court to accept broad assumptions.“I don’t know that the complaint gets you all the way there at this stage,” he said, signaling he may side with MoChridhe. “There’s not enough in the complaint to establish that that was the only motivation and that it implicates church doctrine.”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads