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12 

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE SCHOOL v. 
MORRISSEY-BERRU 
Opinion of the Court 

that the Religion Clauses foreclose certain employment dis-
crimination claims brought against religious organizations. 
565  U. S.,  at  188.    The  constitutional  foundation  for  our 
holding  was  the  general  principle  of  church  autonomy  to 
which we have already referred: independence in matters
of faith and doctrine and in closely linked matters of inter-
nal government.  The three prior decisions on which we pri-
marily  relied  drew  on  this  broad  principle,  and  none  was
exclusively  concerned  with  the  selection  or  supervision  of 
clergy.  Watson v. Jones, 13 Wall. 679 (1872), involved a dis-
pute about the control of church property, and both Kedroff, 
344  U. S.  94,  and  Serbian  Eastern  Orthodox  Diocese  for 
United  States  and  Canada  v.  Milivojevich,  426  U. S.  696 
(1976), also concerned the control of property, as well as the 
appointment and authority of bishops.

In addition to these precedents, we looked to the “back-
ground”  against  which  “the  First  Amendment  was 
adopted.”  Hosanna-Tabor, 565 U. S., at 183.  We noted that 
16th-century  British  statutes  had  given  the  Crown  the 
power to fill high “religious offices” and to control the exer-
cise  of  religion  in  other  ways,  and  we  explained  that  the 
founding generation sought to prevent a repetition of these
practices in our country.  Ibid.  Because Cheryl Perich, the 
teacher  in  Hosanna-Tabor,  had  a  title  that  included  the 
word  “minister,”  we  naturally  concentrated  on  historical 
events involving clerical offices, but the abuses we identi-
fied were not limited to the control of appointments.

We pointed to the various Acts of Uniformity, id., at 182, 
which  dictated  what  ministers  could  preach  and  imposed 
penalties for non-compliance.  Under the 1549 Act, a minis-
ter who “preach[ed,] declare[d,] or [spoke] any thing” in der-
ogation of any part of the Book of Common Prayer could be 
sentenced  to  six  months  in  jail  for  a  first  offense  and  life
imprisonment for a third violation.  Act of Uniformity, 2 & 
3 Edw. 6, ch. 1.  In addition, all other English subjects were 
forbidden  to  say  anything  against  the  Book  of  Common