Minnesota Supreme Court weighs archdiocese’s right to enforce Catholic teaching in ‘transgender’ employee case
Caroline MolloyThe Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments Sept. 1 in a case involving a Catholic school’s ability to require employees to follow Catholic teaching concerning biological sex and sexual identity.
The dispute involves a former media specialist and librarian at the Academy of Holy Angels, a Catholic high school in Richfield, Minnesota.
According to court records, the employee informed school leadership of plans to begin presenting as a woman. School officials subsequently provided the employee with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ principles concerning human sexuality and sexual identity.
The employee indicated an inability to comply with those standards, and the school later declined to renew the employment contract.
A lawsuit filed in 2024 alleged discrimination under the Minnesota Human Rights Act and brought claims against both the school and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. A Hennepin County judge dismissed the claims against the archdiocese, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals later affirmed that decision.
The state Supreme Court is now considering whether those claims were properly dismissed or whether the plaintiff should have been permitted additional discovery before the lower courts ruled.
