Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf
Page Number: 47

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

11 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

A 
1 
Respondent  Kristen  Biel  was  a  teacher  at  St.  James 
School, a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.6 
Biel initially served as a substitute teacher, teaching first 
grade two days a week.  App. 248–249.  At the end of the 
2013 school year, the school hired Biel as a full-time fifth-
grade teacher.  911 F. 3d, at 605; App. 250.

Biel’s employment contract identified her position as just
that: “Grade 5 Teacher.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 19–
348, p. 103a; App. 328–329.  The contract referred to Biel 
throughout  as  “teacher,”  and  directed  her  to  the  benefits 
guide for “Lay Employees.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 19–
348,  at  105a;  App.  320,  325,  327–329.    The  contract  also 
stated that Biel would work ‘‘within [St. James’s] overrid-
ing  commitment’’  to  church  ‘‘doctrines,  laws,  and  norms’’ 
and would ‘‘model, teach, and promote behavior in conform-
ity  to  the  teaching  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.’’  911 
F. 3d, at 605 (internal quotation marks omitted).  According 
to the faculty handbook, all faculty (religion teachers or not) 
‘‘participate in the Church’s mission’’ of providing ‘‘quality
Catholic education to . . . students, educating them in aca-
demic areas and in . . . Catholic faith and values.”  Id., at 
605–606  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted).    The  faculty
handbook  further  instructs  teachers  to  follow  California’s 
public-school curricular requirements.  Id., at 606. 

Although St. James School “recommended” that teachers
be Catholic, the school did not require it.  App. 289.  Nor did 
the school require teachers to have experience, training, or 

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the  position  that  any  material  fact  is  genuinely  in  dispute)  with,  e.g., 
Brief for Respondents 12–13, n. 4, 40–41 (taking the position that mate-
rial facts are genuinely in dispute). 

6 Unlike the Court, I begin with Biel’s case because it was the first one 
decided and the only one deemed precedential below.  Biel passed away 
last year, losing her life to the same cancer that allegedly lost her a job 
at St. James.  Biel’s husband now represents her estate.