Opinion ID: 1197829
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The ADA's Application to Religious Organizations

Text: The ADA generally prohibits an employer with fifteen or more employees from discriminating against a qualified individual with a disability on the basis of that disability in regard to all conditions of employment. See 42 U.S.C. § 12111(5), § 12112(a). The retaliation provision of the ADA prohibits employers from discriminat[ing] against any individual because such individual has opposed any act or practice made unlawful by [the ADA] or because such individual made a charge ... under [the ADA]. 42 U.S.C. § 12203(a). [5] Title I of the ADA includes an exception known as the ministerial exception which allows religious entities to give preference in employment to individuals of a particular religion and to require that all applicants and employees conform to the religious tenants of such organization. 42 U.S.C. § 12113(d). However, the legislative history makes clear that Congress intended the ADA to broadly protect employees of religious entities from retaliation on the job, subject only to a narrowly drawn religious exemption. The House Report provides the following illustrative hypothetical example: [A]ssume that a Mormon organization wishes to hire only Mormons to perform certain jobs. If a person with a disability applies for the job, but is not a Mormon, the organization can refuse to hire him or her. However, if two Mormons apply for a job, one with a disability and one without a disability, the organization cannot discriminate against the applicant with the disability because of that person's disability. H.R.Rep. No. 485 part 2, 101st Cong., 2d Sess. 76-77 (1990). See also 29 C.F.R. Pt. 1630, App. § 1630.16(a) (Religious organizations are not exempt from title I of the ADA or [these regulations]. A religious [entity] may give a preference in employment to individuals of the particular religion, and may require that applicants and employees conform to the religious tenants of the organization. However, a religious organization may not discriminate against an individual who satisfies the permitted religious criteria because that individual is disabled. The religious entity, in other words, is required to consider qualified individuals with disabilities who satisfy the permitted religious criteria on an equal basis with qualified individuals without disabilities who similarly satisfy the religious criteria.).