Can government get involved in dispute at a religious school?

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court justices struggled Wednesday to resolve a profound church-state conflict concerning whether the nation's civil rights laws protect teachers at religious schools.

It is an issue the high court has not ruled on before, and it left the justices divided and sounding uncertain about whether the Constitution's protection of religious liberty shields church schools from most or all anti-discrimination claims involving their employees.

The Obama administration drew sharp rebukes from religious conservatives and liberals when it entered the case on the side of a teacher who was fired from an evangelical Lutheran school in Michigan. In its brief, the administration argued that the Constitution does not shield "religious employers" from anti-discrimination claims.

Justices express amazement

That view also drew the ire of several justices.

Chief Justice John Roberts pressed Leondra Kruger, an assistant solicitor general, to say whether the Constitution calls for special protection for religious institutions.

She replied there was no "categorical" protection for churches or church schools.

Justice Elena Kagan said she agreed it was "amazing" the administration's lawyer suggested that the First Amendment did not give church schools significant protection from lawsuits.

Kruger said she believed that churches should win cases involving ministers but that the law should protect employees from being punished for filing a civil claim. "It's a balancing of interests," she said. In this case, she said, the teacher was fired simply for saying she was going to file a complaint because she might lose her job over frequent absences due to her narcolepsy condition.

'Ministerial exception'

In recent decades, most federal appeals courts have adopted a "ministerial exception" to the civil rights laws. That rule shields churches and temples from civil rights claims involving its ministers. In a commonly cited example, a woman could not sue a Catholic parish for violating the sex-discrimination laws for refusing to hire her as a priest.

But it has remained unclear whether the "ministerial exception" extends broadly to cover all church schools or whether it is limited to ministers and the clergy.