A federal appeals court has ruled that a private Catholic high school in Indiana had the right to not continue employing two different guidance counselors who had entered into marriages that conflicted with the school’s religious principles.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (pdf) unanimously that the Roncalli High School, the private Catholic school, could terminate its employment relationship with guidance counselors Michelle Fitzgerald and Lynn Starkey, after learning that both had entered into respective same-sex marriages.
Ms. Fitzgerald had worked with the Catholic school for 14 years in the guidance department, but in 2018 the school declined to renew her annual employment agreement. After Ms. Fitzgerald was placed on administrative leave, Ms. Starkey came forward to inform the school that she too was in a same-sex marriage. The Catholic school similarly chose not to renew Ms. Starkey’s one-year employment agreement….