INDIANAPOLIS — The legal battle will continue in the case of a guidance counselor who was fired from Roncalli High School for being in a same-sex marriage.
Shelly Fitzgerald filed the lawsuit back in 2019.
Late last month, a federal court sided with the high school, ruling that Roncalli was within its rights to let Fitzgerald go because of a "ministerial exception."
Americans United, an organization that advocates for separation of church and state, filed an appeal on Fitzgerald's behalf on Friday.
AU argued that the "ministerial exception" circumvents workers' civil rights.
The ministerial exception is a legal doctrine that allows religious institutions to be exempt from federal employment discrimination laws. It's meant to prevent the government from interfering with religious institutions, which would violate the First Amendment.
According to the Free Speech Center, this doctrine gives religious institutions a large amount of freedom in deciding who it hires and fires, even if discriminatory practices are used in making those decisions.
"The court wrongly held that Catholic schools are above the law. According to the proffered rationale, a Catholic school can strip every employee – from janitor, to cook, to P.E. teacher, to guidance counselor – of the protection of basic civil rights laws by shoehorning a few religious duties into their job descriptions," Rachel Laser, president and CEO of AU, said in a statement.
Laser argued that Fitzgerald was hired to "provide secular guidance to students seeking to get into college," not to minister or preach the Catholic religion.
Still, Fitzgerald was placed on administrative leave in 2018. Her suit claimed she was subsequently banned from campus and fired from her job over her same-sex marriage. She had sought a jury trial and damages for back pay with interest, punitive damages for emotional distress and mental anguish, losses she has sustained and will sustain and attorney fees.
"She should not have lost her civil rights simply because the secular work she performed was done at a religious school. The district court’s decision failed to uphold religious freedom and instead vindicated religious privilege," Laser said.
Back in July, an appeals court ruled in favor of Roncalli in a similar case involving former guidance counselor Lynn Starkey.
