Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf
Page Number: 37

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

1 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

Nos. 19–267 and 19–348 
_________________ 

19–267 

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE SCHOOL, PETITIONER 
v. 
AGNES MORRISSEY-BERRU 

19–348 

ST. JAMES SCHOOL, PETITIONER 
v. 
DARRYL BIEL, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE 
ESTATE OF KRISTEN BIEL 

ON WRITS OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT 

[July 8, 2020]

 JUSTICE  SOTOMAYOR,  with  whom  JUSTICE  GINSBURG 

joins, dissenting. 

Two  employers  fired  their  employees  allegedly  because 
one had breast cancer and the other was elderly.  Purport-
ing to rely on this Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 565 U. S. 171 
(2012), the majority shields those employers from disability 
and age-discrimination claims.  In the Court’s view, because 
the employees taught short religion modules at Catholic el-
ementary  schools,  they  were  “ministers”  of  the  Catholic 
faith and thus could be fired for any reason, whether reli-
gious  or  nonreligious, benign  or  bigoted,  without  legal  re-
course.  The  Court  reaches  this  result  even  though  the 
teachers taught primarily secular subjects, lacked substan-
tial religious titles and training, and were not even required
to be Catholic.  In foreclosing the teachers’ claims, the Court
skews the facts, ignores the applicable standard of review,