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White Paper: Legal Defenses for Religious Organizations

What legal protections and defenses can religious organizations rely on in today’s environment?

This White Paper reviews the constitutional, statutory, and case law defenses available to religious organizations. It explains church autonomy, the ministerial exception, Title VII exemptions, and labor law considerations. It also examines recent rulings such as Hosanna-Tabor and Hobby Lobby, plus the “World Vision Test,” showing how courts assess religious character. Practical guidance is given for drafting bylaws, job descriptions, and policies that preserve religious identity while reducing litigation risk.

 

Religious organizations in the United States have various religion-based exemptions and defenses. First, they have broad constitutional and statutory rights. These rights provide religious organizations various freedoms to carry out their mission, and defenses to claims against them. While there is no one formal test to define a religious organization, Title VII’s two exemptions are helpful to consider because they apply to a broad variety of employment discrimination disputes. Download this white paper to learn more, and also to review a test with similar factors developed in National Labor Relations Board cases, and the Hobby Lobby and World Vision tests. Then we discuss possible approaches.

Fill out the form below to download this whitepaper.

Because of the generality of the information on this site, it may not apply to a given place, time, or set of facts. It is not intended to be legal advice, and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations