Barrett v. Fontbonne Academy is a Massachusetts Superior Court decision of December 16, 2015, that found that a Roman Catholic secondary school violated the state's laws against discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender when it withdrew an offer of employment from a candidate when officials learned he was in a civil same-sex marriage.
[1] After accepting the job offer, Barrett completed paperwork and provided as his emergency contact the name Ed Suplee, whom he identified as his "husband".
A few days later the school withdrew its offer of employment and explained that his status as a spouse in a same-sex marriage was inconsistent with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
[3] In September 2014, Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley was asked how to reconcile the Church's outreach to gays and lesbians with the number of LGBT-related employment disputes in the news.
It said that the legislature allowed only a very narrow exemption for religious institutions as employers and that because the Academy admits non-Catholic students–"including Muslims, Jews, Baptists, Buddhists, Hindus and Episcopalians"–it failed to meet the law's strict test for exemption as an enterprise that "limits membership, enrollment, admission, or participation to members of that religion".
The court also pointed to public awareness of the issue: The widespread public awareness of the civil laws allowing same-sex marriage and prohibiting employment discrimination, coupled with Fontbonne's ability to explain its position without interference in the form of advocacy from Barrett, leaves little risk that Fontbonne's involuntary compliance with civil law will be mistaken for endorsement of same-sex marriage.Finally, the court considered the Academy's claim that it merited an exception from the anti-discrimination statutes based on the "ministerial exception" established under both the federal and state constitutions that prevents government interference in the free exercise of religion, specifically interference in a religious group's selection of its ministers, teachers and those who exercise religious functions.
[9] Gregory S. Baylor, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, said: "You are on a slippery slope if you allow the government to determine which jobs it deems 'religious.
The government should not be allowed to interfere with a religious school's hiring practices and what it believes is important to remain true to its mission and identity.