Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf
Page Number: 29

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

25 

Opinion of the Court 

them prayers, and supervised the prayers led by students. 
She prepared them for Mass, accompanied them to Mass, 
and prayed with them there.  See supra, at 8–9. 

In Biel’s appeal, the Ninth Circuit suggested that the 
Hosanna-Tabor  exception  should  be  interpreted  narrowly 
because the ADA, 42 U. S. C. §12101 et seq., and Title VII, 
§2000e–2, contain provisions allowing religious employers
to give preference to members of a particular faith in em-
ploying individuals to do work connected with their activi-
ties.  911 F. 3d, at 611, n. 5; post, at 2–3.  But the Hosanna-
Tabor exception serves an entirely different purpose.  Think 
of the quintessential case where a church wants to dismiss
its minister for poor performance.  The church’s objection in
that situation is not that the minister has gone over to some
other faith but simply that the minister is failing to perform
essential functions in a satisfactory manner. 

While  the Ninth  Circuit  treated  the  circumstances  that 
we  cited  in  Hosanna-Tabor  as  factors  to  be  assessed  and 
weighed in every case, respondents would make the govern-
ing test even more rigid.  In their view, courts should begin 
by deciding whether the first three circumstances—a min-
isterial title, formal religious education, and the employee’s
self-description as a minister—are met and then, in order 
to  check  the  conclusion  suggested  by  those  factors,  ask 
whether the employee performed a religious function.  Brief 
for  Respondents  20–24.  For  reasons  already  explained,
there  is  no  basis  for  treating  the  circumstances  we  found 
relevant in Hosanna-Tabor in such a rigid manner.

Respondents go further astray in suggesting that an em-
ployee can never come within the Hosanna-Tabor exception
unless the employee is a “practicing” member of the religion 
with which the employer is associated.  Brief for Respond-
ents 12–13, 21.  In hiring a teacher to provide religious in-
struction, a religious school is very likely to try to select a
person who meets this requirement, but insisting on this as
a necessary condition would create a host of problems.  As