Case Name: Mark A. DOTTER v. MAINE EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION
Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Maine
Decision Date: 1981-10-19
Citations: 435 A.2d 1368
Docket Number: 
Parties: Mark A. DOTTER v. MAINE EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION.
Judges: Before McKUSICK, C. J., and WER-NICK, GODFREY, NICHOLS, GLASS-MAN, and CARTER, JJ.
Reporter: West's Atlantic Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 435
Pages: 1368–1381

Head Matter:
Mark A. DOTTER v. MAINE EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION.
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.
Argued March 2, 1981.
Decided Oct. 19, 1981.
Asen & Landis, Peter J. Landis (orally), Portland, for plaintiff.
Susan P. Herman, Asst. Atty. Gen., Maine Employment Commission, Augusta (orally), for defendant.
Walker, Bradford & Hull, Richard A. Hull, III, Biddeford, for Thornton Academy.
Before McKUSICK, C. J., and WER-NICK, GODFREY, NICHOLS, GLASS-MAN, and CARTER, JJ.
Wernick, J., sat at oral argument and in the initial conference but retired before this opinion was adopted.
Glassman, J., sat at oral argument and in the initial conference but died before this opinion was adopted.

Opinion:
GODFREY, Justice.
The Maine Employment Security Commission appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court ordering that Mark Dotter be granted unemployment benefits following his resignation from Thornton Academy. On appeal the Commission argues that the presiding justice erred as a matter of law in concluding that to deny Dotter unemployment benefits would violate his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. We affirm the judgment.
Since May of 1972 appellee Mark A. Dot-ter has been a member of the Divine Light Mission, a religious faith currently headed by Guru Maharaji. During the year the Divine Light Mission holds three major festivals: Holi, which is celebrated in late March or early April; Guru Puja, which is held in July; and Hans Jayanti, which falls in November. At these festivals members of the sect gather with Guru Maharaji to engage in spiritual discourse. Each festival lasts several days.
At the beginning of the school year of 1973 Dotter was hired by Thornton Academy as a teacher of English and remedial reading. During 1973,1975, and early 1977, Dotter requested and received permission from Thornton Academy to take time off from teaching in order to attend the religious festivals. The Academy granted these requests with increasing reluctance, however. On November 3, 1977, James Jortberg, the headmaster of Thornton Academy, informed Dotter by letter that "the teacher contract must be adhered to to the letter pertaining to personal days" and that "any extensions of the one personal day will be scrutinized."
Despite this indication of dissatisfaction, Dotter sought permission to attend the Hans Jayanti festival from November 6 through November 9, 1978. A conversation ensued in which headmaster Jortberg attempted to persuade Dotter not to attend the festival. After that conversation Dot-ter had the impression that he had three choices in the matter: he could forego the festival, attend the festival and risk being dismissed, or resign. Dotter chose the third alternative and tendered his resignation on October 10, 1978.
On November 27, 1978, Dotter filed with the Maine Employment Security Commission a claim for unemployment compensation benefits. The local deputy for the Commission found that Dotter was eligible for unemployment benefits because he had left his position at Thornton Academy "voluntarily with good cause attributable to such employment." Specifically, the deputy found as a fact that Dotter had been put to a choice between missing the festival or resigning.
Thornton Academy appealed the deputy's decision to the Appeal Tribunal of the Maine Employment Security Commission. Following a hearing, at which Dotter and Jortberg testified, the Appeal Tribunal modified the decision of the deputy. The Tribunal ruled that under the Employment Security Law, an individual is disqualified for unemployment benefits if he leaves employment for reasons that are not directly related to his work. Because, in the Tribunal's view, Dotter had resigned because of personal preference rather than an inability to perform his job, he left employment for reasons that were not directly related to his work. Accordingly, Dotter was temporarily disqualified from unemployment benefits under 26 M.R.S.A. § 1193(1) (1977).
Next, Dotter appealed the decision of the Appeal Tribunal to the Employment Security Commission as a whole, requesting another hearing. The evidence presented at the second hearing was essentially the same as that presented at the first. On May 9,1979, the Commission issued its decision on the appeal. Because no new substantial evidence was presented at the second hearing, the Commission adopted the Appeal Tribunal's findings of fact. The Commission also concurred in the Appeal Tribunal's legal conclusion that Dotter had resigned voluntarily, without good cause attributable to his employment, and hence was temporarily ineligible for unemployment benefits.
Having exhausted his remedies before the Employment Security Commission, Dot-ter duly appealed the Commission's decision to the Superior Court pursuant to 5 M.R.S.A. § 11001 and 26 M.R.S.A. § 1194(8) (1979). In his complaint for review of governmental action, Dotter alleged, among other things, that the Commission's decision violated his right to the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 3 of the Maine Constitution; and that the decision violated his right to equal protection of the laws guar anteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 6-A of the Maine Constitution. For relief, Dotter requested the Superior Court to vacate the Commission's decision and to declare him fully eligible for unemployment benefits.
On July 30, 1980, the Superior Court justice rendered his order in regard to Dotter's appeal. The court vacated the Commission's decision and remanded the case for the entry of an order awarding Dotter his requested unemployment benefits. As a threshold matter the judge found that there was a direct relationship between Dotter's resignation and his desire to attend the religious festivals. Although the Divine Light Mission did not require attendance at the festivals and did not require its members to refrain from work during the festivals, the festivals nevertheless were a prominent aspect of the religion's form of worship. Dotter's choice to attend the festivals, although in a sense "personal," was based on an important tenet of his faith. Consequently, Thornton Academy's refusal to allow Dotter to attend the festivals placed a burden on the exercise of his religion. Because the Commission had shown no compelling state interest in denying Dot-ter unemployment benefits, the court held that this denial of benefits constituted a violation of Dotter's First Amendment right to the free exercise of his religion.
On appeal, the Commission argues that Dotter had the burden of showing that the Commission's refusal to grant him unemployment benefits constituted a substantial interference with the free exercise of his religion. In the Commission's view, Dotter established only that he desired to attend the religious festivals as a matter of personal preference inasmuch as non-attendance at the festivals did not violate a cardinal tenet of his religion and his faith did not preclude him from working during the festival periods. Furthermore, if it were to be assumed arguendo that Dotter's free-exercise rights were substantially infringed, the Commission contends that the state has a compelling interest in restricting unemployment benefits to those persons who leave work involuntarily for reasons objectively related to their employment. Such restriction encourages people to stay at their jobs and inhibits resignations motivated by a desire to gain unemployment benefits. The Commission further argues that the state has a compelling interest in ensuring that teachers are available to meet the needs of Maine's students. According to the Commission, whatever burden was placed on Dotter's exercise of his religion was outweighed by the state's compelling interests.
Dotter disputes the Commission's interpretation of the free-exercise clause. In Dotter's view, once he showed that the Commission directly or indirectly placed any burden on the free exercise of his religion, the Commission was required to show a compelling interest in imposing that burden. Because he had shown a direct relationship between his resignation and his frustrated desire to attend the religious festivals, Dotter argues that he raised a prima facie free-exercise claim. He asserts that it was immaterial that his religion did not absolutely require him to attend the religious festivals. Finally, he contends that the Commission has failed to show a state interest sufficiently compelling to outweigh his interest in religious freedom.
We concur in the Superior Court's decision and reasoning: namely, that Dotter established a valid free-exercise claim and that the Commission did not establish a compelling state interest justifying its interference with one of his religious practices.
A. The Statutory Framework
Under the Maine Employment Security Act, a claimant is temporarily disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits if he leaves his regular employment "voluntarily without good cause attributable to such employment _" 26 M.R.S.A. § 1193 (1979). This Court has previously defined the phrase "good cause" as contemplating objective difficulties such as physical inability to perform the employee's usual job. The requirement of an objective impediment to working serves to prevent employers from being assessed for benefit payments resulting from employee conduct that is beyond the employer's control and substantially within the employee's unconstrained discretion. Therrien v. Maine Employment Sec. Comm'n, Me., 370 A.2d 1385, 1389 (1977).
Dotter does not contend that the statutory temporary disqualification from receiving unemployment benefits is unconstitutional on its face. Rather, he argues that the First Amendment guarantee of the free exercise of religion precludes the Commission from applying that disqualification to him. We agree that the statute is constitutional on its face. Apart from the fact that Dotter's resignation was the result of his religious beliefs, our past interpretation of the statute would lead to the conclusion that his purpose in resigning would not represent "good cause attributable to" his employment. If the statute is to be found inapplicable to Dotter, it must be because application of the statute would unconstitutionally infringe his right to the free exercise of his religion.
B. The Free Exercise Claim
We need not decide, in the abstract, the extent to which governmental action need impinge upon a religious practice in order for the practitioner to raise a free-exercise claim. The United States Supreme Court has made clear that when a state denies unemployment benefits because the worker has engaged in conduct mandated by religious belief, "thereby putting substantial pressure on the adherent to modify his behavior and to violate his beliefs," a substantial interference with the worker's free exercise of religion exists. Thomas v. Review Board, 450 U.S. 707, 101 S.Ct. 1425, 67 L.Ed.2d 624, 634 (1981). See also Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963).
The Commission argues that before Dot-ter may assert a constitutionally protected interest in the free exercise of religion he must show a substantial interference with a practice that is an indispensable aspect of his faith. In its most recent opinion on the subject the United States Supreme Court has held that a practice comes within the protective ambit of the Free-Exercise Clause of the First Amendment as long as it is rooted in an honest religious conviction. While the Supreme Court recognized the possibility that an asserted religious claim could be "so bizarre, so clearly unreligious in motivation, as not to be entitled to protection under the Free Exercise Clause," the Court ruled that if the plaintiff's belief is the religious significance of the practice is sincere, it is immaterial whether the plaintiff's faith absolutely mandates the practice.
[T]he guarantee of free exercise is not limited to beliefs which are shared by all of the members of a religious sect. Particularly in this sensitive area, it is not within the judicial function and judicial competence to inquire whether the petitioner or his fellow worker more correctly perceived the commands of their common faith. Courts are not arbiters of scriptural interpretation.
Thomas v. Review Board, 450 U.S. at 716, 101 S.Ct. at 1431, 67 L.Ed.2d at 632. In so holding, the Court reflected the position adopted by the majority of federal and state courts. See, e. g., Lewis v. Califano, 616 F.2d 73 (3rd Cir. 1980); Teterud v. Burns, 522 F.2d 357 (8th Cir. 1975); Chapman v. Pickett, 491 F.Supp. 967 (C.D.Ill.1980); Lincoln v. True, 408 F.Supp. 22 (W.D.Ky. 1975); Frank v. State, 604 P.2d 1068 (Alaska 1979); People v. Woody, 61 Cal.2d 716, 40 Cal.Rptr. 69, 394 P.2d 813 (1964).
In the present case, the Commission found that Dotter was given to understand "that if he was absent for the purpose of attending the festival he would face possible discharge." The Commission thus adopted as its finding of fact almost exactly Dotter's testimony in the following exchange:
[Attorney for Thornton Academy]: Q.... Mr. Jortberg never did directly say he would discharge you if you went [,] did he?
MR. DOTTER: He led me to believe . . that would be the consequence .
The Commission does not suggest that Dot-ter's understanding was in any way unreasonable in light of what Jortberg had said to him. The Commission, however, denied Dotter unemployment benefits because of its other finding that he left work because of personal motivations — because of the deep personal loss he would feel from not attending, even though he would suffer no "repercussion from the organization." In so holding, the Commission misapplied the law.
The Commission's decision to disqualify Dotter from receiving unemployment benefits effectively penalized him for choosing to resign from the Academy rather than forego his religious practices. If attendance at the festivals constituted a bona fide religious expression, the actions of the Commission resulted in an infringement of Dotter's interest in religious freedom.
There has been no suggestion in any of the proceedings below that Dotter's professed desire to attend the festival was insincere or motivated by non-religious concerns. The Commission found as a fact that the festival was a function of the Divine Light Mission and that Dotter would have suffered a deep personal loss if he had not attended it. Throughout the proceedings before the Commission Dotter had stressed the importance to him of congregating with other members of the faith at the festival to receive spiritual teaching from Guru Maharaji.
In these circumstances it is clear that the Commission failed to give proper deference to Dotter's reason for resigning from Thornton Academy. Although Dotter's desire to attend the festival was personal, it was also based on a sincere religious belief. Consequently Dotter's participation in the festival was a constitutionally protected form of religious expression, notwithstanding the fact that his attendance was not mandatory.
C. The State's Competing Interests
The Employment Security Commission first argues that Thornton Academy has a compelling interest in ensuring that its teachers are not absent from the classroom for extended periods of time, even to attend religious functions. We recognize the importance of the Academy's concern for maintaining continuity in the relationship between teacher and pupil. However, we must conclude that the Employment Security Commission may not justify "disqualification" by invoking the Academy's interests as justification for its own action in temporarily disqualifying Dotter for unemployment benefits.
As the Superior Court noted below, the present case is not a dispute between private parties. Dotter does not challenge the Academy's refusal to allow him to attend the religious festival, but rather the Commission's refusal to grant him unemployment benefits following his resignation from the Academy. Whether a resigning claimant is temporarily disqualified for unemployment benefits does not depend on the reasonableness or strength of his former employer's interest in maintaining or terminating the employment relationship. The overriding purpose of the Employment Security Act is to alleviate the economic hardship incident to unemployment, on the premise that economic insecurity from unemployment is a menace to the health, morals, and welfare of all Maine citizens. 26 M.R.S.A. § 1042 (1974). See Therrien v. Maine Employment Sec. Comm'n, supra, at 1389; Cornwall Indus., Inc. v. Maine Employment Sec. Comm'n, Me., 351 A.2d 546, 552 (1976). Although the Act may have a subsidiary goal of promoting stability in the labor force, it pursues that goal only to the extent necessary to further its primary purpose; the temporary disqualification provisions within the Act do not discourage resignations or discharges generally, but rather serve to inhibit employees from leaving voluntarily or getting themselves dismissed merely for the sake of obtaining unemployment benefits. Therrien v. Maine Employment Sec. Comm'n, supra. In short, if the Employment Security Commission is to assert a compelling interest in disqualifying Dotter, it must show that his disqualification is compelled by the purposes of the Act, and not merely that disqualification tends to further the separate interests of the Academy.
The United States Supreme Court has twice refused to characterize as "compelling" the state's interest in protecting the unemployment fund from claimants whose resignations were motivated by religious beliefs. Thomas v. Review Board, 450 U.S. at 719, 101 S.Ct. at 1432-1433, 67 L.Ed.2d at 634-35; Sherbert v. Verner, supra, 374 U.S. at 407, 83 S.Ct. at 1795 As in Thomas, there is no evidence in the record here that religiously motivated resignations are so common as to threaten widespread unemployment or serious depletion of the unemployment compensation fund. Although the Commission has a legitimate concern to prevent claimants from fabricating religious reasons for quitting their jobs, that concern alone does not justify a blanket denial of benefits to all persons who claim that their faith precludes them from continuing in their former employment. Even compelling state interests must be achieved by means that cause the least possible intrusion upon constitutionally protected interests. Thomas v. Review Board, supra. See also Sherwood v. Brown, 619 F.2d 47 (9th Cir. 1980); Robinson v. Price, 615 F.2d 1097 (5th Cir. 1980); Moody v. Cronin, 484 F.Supp. 270 (C.D.Ill.1979). The Commission has neither shown nor even argued that it would be infeasible to attempt to distinguish fraudulent claimants from bona fide ones.
The entry is:
Appeal denied.
Judgment affirmed.
McKUSICK, C. J., and NICHOLS, J., concurring.
CARTER, J., dissenting.
. At the time of the Appellate Tribunal's decision, section 1193(1) provided, in pertinent part:
An individual shall be disqualified for benefits:
1. For the week in which he left his regular employment voluntarily without good cause attributable to such employment . . and disqualification shall continue until claimant has earned 4 times his weekly benefit amount....
P.L. 1977, ch. 472, § 1.
. See U.S.Const.Amend. I; Me.Const.art. I, § 3.