In a Law360 preview of the upcoming term for the New Jersey Supreme Court, Professor Jason Mazzone commented on the scope of the First Amendment's ministerial exception in blocking employment discrimination claims against religious institutions. Regarding the case Victoria Crisitello v. St. Theresa School, which an appellate panel found did not fall under the ministerial exception, he suggested that a ruling in a 2020 case before SCOTUS allows for applying the exception to religious school teachers who are not engaged in religious instruction.
"That's why I think the school is in a pretty good position in the New Jersey case because of its argument that, even if you're not engaged in religious instruction, you're still performing a function as a teacher in the classroom by modeling behavior," Mazzone said.
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