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St. James School v. Darryl Biel, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Kristen Biel

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 17-55180 · judgment December 17, 2018

Decided · July 8, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 9% cert probability (95% interval 6%–12%)

Before the decision, about 2.1× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Ninth Circuit decision below, a circuit split argued in the petition, and a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition).

Question presented

Consolidated with 19-267. The First Amendment's Religion Clauses forbid government interference in a religious group's selection of its ministerial employees. The federal courts of appeals and state courts of last resort have long agreed that the key to determining ministerial status is whether an employee performed important religious functions. This Court's unanimous 2012 ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC was consistent with that existing analytical consensus, and other circuits and states since 2012 have continued to rely on it. Yet the Ninth Circuit has now twice ruled that, under Hosanna-Tabor, important religious functions alone can never suffice-those functions must always be accompanied by considerations such as a religious title or religious training in order to demonstrate ministerial status. The question presented is: Whether the Religion Clauses prevent civil courts from adjudicating employment discrimination claims brought by an employee against her religious employer, where the employee carried out important religious functions.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Eric Christopher Rassbach
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

For respondent
Jennifer Anne Lipski
JML Law, A Professional Law Corporation

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
5 cert-stage

Argument & decision

Argued May 11, 2020 — Eric C. Rassbach · Jeffrey L. Fisher. Audio and transcript

Decided July 8, 2020. Opinion by Alito.

Proceedings

  1. Aug 10 2020
    JUDGMENT ISSUED.
  2. Jul 08 2020
    Judgment REVERSED and case REMANDED. Alito, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Thomas, Breyer, Kagan, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Gorsuch, J., joined. Sotomayor, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Ginsburg, J., joined. VIDED.
  3. May 11 2020
    Argued. For petitioners: Eric C. Rassbach, Washington, D. C.; and Morgan L. Ratner, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. (for United States, as amicus curiae.). For respondents: Jeffrey L. Fisher, Menlo Park, Cal. VIDED.
  4. Apr 15 2020
    RESCHEDULED FOR ARGUMENT on Monday, May 11, 2020. VIDED.
  5. Apr 13 2020
    Argument to be rescheduled for May 2020.
  6. Mar 16 2020
    ORAL ARGUMENT POSTPONED. VIDED.
  7. Mar 04 2020
    The record from the U.S.C.A. 9th Circuit is electronic and located on Pacer.
  8. Feb 19 2020
    CIRCULATED
  9. Feb 19 2020
    Record requested from the U.S.C.A. 9th Circuit.
  10. Jan 31 2020
    SET FOR ARGUMENT on Wednesday, April 1, 2020. VIDED
  11. Dec 18 2019
    Petition GRANTED. The petition for a writ of certiorari in No. 19-267 is granted. The cases are consolidated, and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument. VIDED.
  12. Dec 18 2019
    Because the Court has consolidated these cases for briefing and oral argument, future filings and activity in the cases will now be reflected on the docket of No. 19-267. Subsequent filings in these cases must therefore be submitted through the electronic filing system in No. 19-267. Each document submitted in connection with one or more of these cases must include on its cover the case number and caption for each case in which the filing is intended to be submitted. Where a filing is submitted in fewer than all of the cases, the docket entry will reflect the case number(s) in which the filing is submitted; a document filed in all of the consolidated cases will be noted as “VIDED.”
  13. Nov 26 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/13/2019.
  14. Nov 22 2019
    Reply of petitioner St. James School filed.
  15. Nov 21 2019
    Waiver of 14-day waiting period for the distribution of the petition under Rule 15.5 filed.
  16. Nov 13 2019
    Brief of respondent Darryl Biel in opposition filed.
  17. Oct 17 2019
    Brief amici curiae of General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, et al. filed.
  18. Oct 17 2019
    Brief amicus curiae of Asma T. Uddin filed.
  19. Oct 17 2019
    Brief amicus curiae of Stephen Wise Temple filed.
  20. Oct 16 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including November 13, 2019.
  21. Oct 16 2019
    Brief amici curiae of Professors Douglas Laycock, et al. filed.
  22. Oct 11 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 17, 2019 to November 13, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  23. Sep 27 2019
    Brief amici curiae of Church of God in Christ, Inc. and Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America filed. VIDED
  24. Sep 16 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 17, 2019)