Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf
Page Number: 21

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

17 

Opinion of the Court 

be met—or even that they are necessarily important—in all
other cases. 

Take the question of the title “minister.”  Simply giving
an employee the title of “minister” is not enough to justify
the exception.  And by the same token, since many religious
traditions do not use the title “minister,” it cannot be a nec-
essary  requirement.  Requiring  the  use  of  the  title  would 
constitute impermissible discrimination, and this problem 
cannot  be  solved  simply  by  including  positions  that  are 
thought  to  be  the  counterparts  of  a  “minister,”  such  as 
priests,  nuns,  rabbis, and  imams.    See  Brief  for  Respond-
ents 21.  Nuns are not the same as Protestant ministers.  A 
brief  submitted  by  Jewish  organizations  makes  the  point 
that  “Judaism  has  many  ‘ministers,’ ”  that  is,  “the  term 
‘minister’  encompasses  an  extensive  breadth  of  religious
functionaries in Judaism.”11  For Muslims, “an inquiry into
whether imams or other leaders bear a title equivalent to
‘minister’ can present a troubling choice between denying a 
central pillar of Islam—i.e., the equality of all believers— 
and 
exception 
protections.”12 

of  ministerial 

risking 

loss 

If titles were all-important, courts would have to decide
which titles count and which do not, and it is hard to see 
how that could be done without looking behind the titles to
what the positions actually entail.  Moreover, attaching too
much significance to titles would risk privileging religious
traditions with formal organizational structures over those 
that are less formal. 

For related reasons, the academic requirements of a po-
sition may show that the church in question regards the po-
sition as having an important responsibility in elucidating
or teaching the tenets of the faith.  Presumably the purpose 

—————— 

11 Brief for Colpa et al. as Amici Curiae i, 3 (quotation modified). 
12 Brief for Asma T. Uddin as Amicus Curiae 2.