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Page Number: 42

6 

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE SCHOOL v. 
MORRISSEY-BERRU 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

at 191.  When the school fired her, Perich was in the role of 
a “called teacher,” as opposed to her prior position of “lay
teacher.”  Id., at 178.  When the church “extended [Perich]
a call,” it also “issued her a ‘diploma of vocation’ according
her the title ‘Minister of Religion, Commissioned.’ ”  Id., at 
191.  And “[i]n a supplement to the diploma, the congrega-
tion undertook to periodically review Perich’s ‘skills of min-
istry’  and  ‘ministerial  responsibilities,’  and  to  provide  for 
her  ‘continuing  education  as  a  professional  person  in  the 
ministry of the Gospel.’ ”  Ibid. 

Second,  the  Court  observed  that  Perich’s  job  title  “re-
flected a significant degree of religious training followed by
a formal process of commissioning.”  Ibid.  Further distin-
guishing Perich from the rest of her faith community, the 
Court explained that Perich’s “eligib[ility] to become a com-
missioned minister” turned on her completion of a six-year
process requiring “eight college-level courses in subjects in-
cluding  biblical  interpretation,  church  doctrine,  and  the
ministry of the Lutheran teacher,” obtaining “the endorse-
ment of her local Synod district,” and passing “an oral ex-
amination  by  a  faculty  committee  at  a  Lutheran  college.” 
Ibid. 

Third, the Court observed that Perich “held herself out as 
a minister of the Church by accepting the formal call to re-
ligious service” and “in other ways as well.”  Ibid.  Unlike 
the lay teachers, for example, Perich claimed a tax exemp-
tion available only to employees earning compensation “in 
the exercise of the ministry.”  Id., at 192 (internal quotation 
marks omitted). 

Finally,  the  Court  looked  to  function,  finding  that
Perich’s  “job  duties  reflected  a  role  in  conveying  the 
Church’s message and carrying out its mission” notably dif-
ferent from other members of the church.  Id., at 192; see 
also id., at 188, 191.  Perich was “expressly charged” with
“lead[ing] others” in their faith and did so by teaching “her
students religion four days a week” and “le[ading] them in