Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf
Page Number: 13

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

9 

Opinion of the Court 

348, at 82a, 94a–96a.  Her students participated in the lit-
urgy  on  some  occasions  by  presenting  the  gifts  (bringing 
bread and wine to the priest).  Ibid. 

Teachers at St. James were “required to pray with their 
students  every  day,”  id.,  at  80a–81a,  110a,  and  Biel  ob-
served this requirement by opening and closing each school 
day  with  prayer,  including  the  Lord’s  Prayer  or  a  Hail 
Mary, id., at 81a–82a, 93a, 110a. 

As at OLG, teachers at St. James are evaluated on their 
fulfillment of the school’s religious mission.  Id., at 83a–84a. 
St. James used the same classroom observation standards 
as  OLG  and  thus  examined  whether  teachers  “infus[ed]” 
Catholic values in all their teaching and included religious 
displays  in  their  classrooms.  Id.,  at  83a–84a,  92a.  The 
school’s principal, a Catholic nun, evaluated Biel on these 
measures.  Id., at 106a. 

2 
St. James declined to renew Biel’s contract after one full 
year at the school.  She filed charges with the EEOC, and 
after receiving a right-to-sue letter, brought this suit, alleg-
ing that she was discharged because she had requested a
leave of absence to obtain treatment for breast cancer.  App.
337–338.  The school maintains that the decision was based 
on  poor  performance—namely,  a  failure  to  observe  the
planned curriculum and keep an orderly classroom.  See id., 
at  303;  App.  to  Pet.  for  Cert.  in  No.  19–348,  at  85a–89a,
114a–115a, 120a–121a. 

Like OLG, St. James obtained summary judgment under 
the ministerial exception, id., at 74a, but a divided panel of 
the  Ninth  Circuit  reversed,  reasoning  that  Biel  lacked
Perich’s  “credentials,  training,  [and]  ministerial  back-
ground,” 911 F. 3d 603, 608 (2018). 

Judge  D.  Michael  Fisher,  sitting  by  designation,  dis-
sented.  Considering  the  totality  of  the  circumstances,  he