Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf
Page Number: 49

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

13 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

would require her to take time off from work.  911 F. 3d, at 
606;  App.  266–269,  309.    The  school  responded  that  she 
would not be welcomed back.  911 F. 3d, at 606; App. 270– 
273.  At no point has St. James School suggested a religious
reason for terminating Biel’s employment. 

2 
In 1998, after a 20-year career in newspaper advertising
and  copywriting,  respondent  Agnes  Deirdre  Morrissey-
Berru began working as a substitute teacher at Our Lady
of Guadalupe School, another Catholic school in Southern
California.  App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 19–267, p. 80a; App. 
74.  More  recently,  she  taught  fifth  and  sixth  grade  full
time.  App. 73–75.
  Each year, Morrissey-Berru signed an employment con-
tract  with  the  school.    Like  Biel’s  contracts,  these  agree-
ments  referred  to  Morrissey-Berru  as  “Teacher”  and  di-
rected  her  to  the  benefits  guide  for  “Lay  Employees.”
App. 91–100, 127–164; App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 19–267, 
at 32a–42a.  Notably, the faculty handbook promised not to 
discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic, in-
cluding “race,” “sex,” “disability,” or “age.”  Record Excerpts
in No. 17–56624, p. 648. 

“At no time” during her employment did Morrissey-Berru
“feel God was leading [her] to serve in the ministry,” nor did
she “believe [she] was accepting a formal . . . call to religious
service by working at Our Lady of Guadalupe as a fifth and 
sixth grade teacher.”  App. to Brief in Opposition in No. 19– 
267,  p.  2a.    Morrissey-Berru,  in  fact,  is  not  a  practicing 
Catholic.  Ibid.   Although  Our  Lady  of  Guadalupe  School
“preferred” its teachers to be Catholic, there is a factual dis-
pute whether the school insisted on that prerequisite with-
out exception (and thus, for summary-judgment purposes,
the  Court  must  assume  there  was  no  absolute  require-
ment).  App. 110–111; Scott, 550 U. S., at 378.  Nor did the 
school require teachers to have any background or training