Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

SCOTUS to Consider Scope of Ministerial Exception

Post author:Daniel Suhr
Post published:April 11, 2011
Post category:Religion & Law U.S. Supreme Court Wisconsin Supreme Court

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided Coulee Catholic Schools v. LIRC, 2009 WI 88 , Professor Esenberg and I both took to this blog to praise Justice Gableman’s majority decision. The decision is undoubtedly the most important religious liberty case in Wisconsin since Jackson v. Benson (1998) and State v. Miller (1996). It concerned the scope of the “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination employment laws and the status of a teacher in a religious school.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted cert in Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC. The case presents the same basic question as Coulee: does the ministerial exception include “a teacher at a religious elementary school who teaches the full secular curriculum, but also teaches daily religion classes, is a commissioned minister, and regularly leads students in prayer and worship”?

That’s the Same Combination I Have on My Luggage!

Post author:Bruce E. Boyden
Post published:April 11, 2011
Post category:Computer Law Intellectual Property Law

Quick, which service do you think has the most strict password requirements I’ve ever encountered? My bank? Mutual funds? My law firm network login? Credit cards? Paypal? Email providers? Configuring my home server for remote access? Electronics sites like newegg.com and amazon.com? Westlaw and Lexis?

No. Not any of those. There is a service that, judging by its password requirements, contains either information far more sensitive or capabilities far more powerful than any of these. It’s…

Hospital as a Melting Pot

Post author:Mathew Pauley
Post published:April 11, 2011
Post category:Health Care

One of the things I love about working in a hospital is the unavoidability of cultural mingling. Watching the news, feeling that there is a “culture war” just simmering and waiting to boil over is something I frequently experience. Looking at bumper stickers sometimes makes me feel that way too. I find solace in the hospitals that I have had the honor of working in. I do not know of any other institution that forces each one of its staff to wade so far outside his or her comfort zone so frequently, nor of a population of staff that so willing endeavors to do so.

An atheist surgeon stands with a family in a respectful silence as a prayer is said over a dying patient.

An evangelical nursing manager diligently works to ensure that nowhere in her hospital, will a same-sex partner be denied access from an ill loved one.