In a recent case, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered one of the most important decisions on religious freedom in a generation.

The high court’s ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission addresses churches and church employees in employment discrimination cases.

Justices unanimously recognized a “ministerial exception” to claims against religious bodies for employment discrimination. In other words, churches get to decide who serve as ministers. If a church fires a minister, the church cannot be sued under federal anti-discrimination laws.  

Harking to English history, the colonies and the founding era, the Court found that religious liberty depends on a religious group being free to choose its own ministers. A government cannot use laws that prohibit employment discrimination, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, to tell a religious congregation whom to hire or keep as its minister.