Skip to content
  • About
  • Institute
    • Blog
    • Background Briefings
    • Issue Resources
    • Historical Documents
    • Petitions
  • Cases
    • Religious Freedom
    • Marriage and Family
    • Human Sexuality
    • Rights of the Unborn
  • Updates
  • Legal Help
Menu
  • About
  • Institute
    • Blog
    • Background Briefings
    • Issue Resources
    • Historical Documents
    • Petitions
  • Cases
    • Religious Freedom
    • Marriage and Family
    • Human Sexuality
    • Rights of the Unborn
  • Updates
  • Legal Help
Search
Donate
Donate
Menu
  • About
  • Institute
    • Blog
    • Background Briefings
    • Issue Resources
    • Historical Documents
    • Petitions
  • Cases
    • Religious Freedom
    • Marriage and Family
    • Human Sexuality
    • Rights of the Unborn
  • Updates
  • Legal Help

Hankins v. New York Annual Conference

Religious Freedom

About this Case

The case concerned the “ministerial exception,” a legal doctrine that bars interference with a church’s employment relationships with its ministers.  The exception is based on two clauses in the First Amendment—the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause—which prevent the government from interfering in matters of a church’s governance.  In this case, a former clergyman, whose denomination’s policy required him to retire at age 70, sought to resist this policy.  He sued the denomination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).  The district court ruled in favor of the denomination, but on a basis other than the ministerial exception.  The retired clergyman appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Summary of NLF's Brief

Our brief showed how the various Circuits have treated the ministerial exception and how this case fit within those precedents.  We argued that if a court’s interference with a church’s employment decision would violate the First Amendment under a Title VII claim of race or sex discrimination, then a court’s interference under the ADEA for age discrimination would be equally unconstitutional.  A failure to apply the ministerial exception would have led to a violation of the Free Exercise rights of the church and would have violated the Establishment Clause.

Download Brief

Find a Case​

Search

Browse Cases by Topic

Human Sexuality
Marriage and Family

Rights of the Unborn
Religious Freedom

CONTACT US

757.463.6133
email@nationallegalfoundation.org

Post Office Box 64427
Virginia Beach, VA 23467-4427

Facebook Twitter Rss Envelope

Subscribe to email updates

Scroll to Top