News Archive

Professor Jennifer Drobac talked about the United States Supreme Court ruling that religious schools have a “ministerial exception” which exempts them from discrimination laws. She discussed the ruling in the case Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru with Indianapolis television news stations WXIN and WISH.

In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that employment discrimination law suits brought by teachers fired by Catholic elementary schools are barred by the “ministerial execption.”

“The opinion confirms that you don’t have to have the title of minister,” Professor Drobac said in the WXIN story. “You don’t have to have specialized training. Simply having duties, one assigned duty that involves the teaching of the doctrine or the practices of the religion is enough to qualify a teacher as a minister.”

“You can imagine that religious institutions are going to make sure that all their teachers have at least one task assigned to them so that school can let them go and not be subject to civil rights law,” Professor Drobac surmised in the WISH story.

Professor Drobac is a widely known expert in sexual harassment law. She is an author of the textbook, Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases and Practice, recently published by Carolina Academic Press. She co-authored the book with Professor Carrie N. Baker of Smith College and Professor Rigel C. Oliveri of the University of Missouri School of Law.  Professor Drobac is at work on her next book, The Myth of Consent, which is under contract with Cambridge University Press. That work will explore the neuroscience of adult decision making and how the science should influence law reform, particularly the law of consent. She is a Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law.