Court Opinion

ID: 9679943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:13:44.401232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:23.796883
License: Public Domain

SEARS, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion. The majority believes that there should be some discovery in this case to determine the “reasons for termination” of Eric May. However, the reasons for termination of a teacher at a Catholic school are not and should not be subject to interference by the Texas courts.
It is undisputed that the Diocese of Galveston-Houston is owned and controlled by the Catholic church. Also, it is uncontradicted that the responsibility for hiring and firing teaching personnel lies directly with the bishop. The majority opinion holds that the trial court should be able to order “limited” discovery to determine the “real reasons” for the firing of Eric May. However, the matter of the employment of a teacher at a religious school is “clearly one of ecclesiastical concern, and could not be resolved without reference to the spiritual meaning of the requirements and guidelines.... ” Patterson v. Southwestern Baptist Seminary, 858 S.W.2d 602, 605 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth 1993, no writ). It is also well known that the Catholic church establishes guidelines and has an internal structure for resolving disputes with personnel of the church and/or the church’s schools. The Pope is the final arbitrator and the final word on all disputes within the church. So much so that the United States Constitution requires that civil *179courts accept the decisions of religious organizations as binding upon them. Crowder v. Southern Baptist Convention, 828 F.2d 718, 724 (11th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1066, 108 S.Ct. 1028, 98 L.Ed.2d 992 (1988).
Although the majority would allow the trial court to delve into a limited review of the evidence, the United States Supreme Court has held that it is impermissible under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for the United States of America and Canada, et al. v. Milivojevich, et al., 426 U.S. 696, 96 S.Ct. 2372, 49 L.Ed.2d 151 (1976). The Supreme Court held that civil courts were required to accept the consequences of ecclesiastical determinations and abide by the decisions made in resolving internal disputes. The Supreme Court further cited the First and Fourteenth Amendments as binding civil courts to “accept the decisions of the highest judicatories of a religious organization of hierarchical polity on matters of discipline, faith, internal organization, or ecclesiastical rule, custom, or law.” Id. at 713, 96 S.Ct. at 2382. It is a simple question with a simple answer: Religious controversies are not the proper subject of civil court inquiry.
I would find that the firing of a teacher at a Catholic school is an ecclesiastical decision as a matter of law, that the church is the sole authority to make such ecclesiastical decisions, and that civil inquiry into those decisions is impermissible under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
I would grant the writ of mandamus.