Christian School Tells Supreme Court It Can’t Be Sued by Former Teacher Who Accused It of Racism

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Dec. 4, 2022. Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

A Christian school in Colorado told the Supreme Court it can’t be sued for firing a “woke” teacher who accused the school, parents, and students of racism because it’s a religious institution that is beyond the reach of the First Amendment.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The case itself involves the ministerial exception that the Supreme Court recognized in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Employment Opportunity Division (2012). The exception prevents employees who carry out religious functions from suing church bodies.

The Supreme Court affirmed the exception in July 2020 when it ruled 7–2 in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru that the First Amendment’s establishment clause exempts religious organizations from employment discrimination lawsuits, as The Epoch Times reported at the time.

This case, Faith Bible Chapel International (FBCI) v. Tucker, court file 22-741, dates to 2018.

Then-Chaplain Gregory Tucker angered school officials, students, and their parents at Faith Bible Chapel by lecturing them on “systemic bias” and on their “white privilege,” two controversial concepts associated with the radical “anti-racism” movement. The movement campaigns against so-called hate speech and presses for, among other things, racial sensitivity training in government and corporations in an effort to eradicate perceived “white privilege.”

Critics decry such training as forced ideological reeducation.

Tucker claimed in his original legal complaint (pdf) that the FBCI fired him because he expressed opposition to racial discrimination and harassment directed against him, as a father of a black daughter, and against minority students at the school. Tucker organized a symposium “to discuss racist behavior within the school with the intention of eliminating it.”

Tucker claimed that his employment was terminated in February 2018 because he organized the event and that the school caved to pressure from “students and parents who were guilty of the most racially incendiary behavior within the school [and] were offended by the implied message that they were guilty of racism.” His complaint stated that the school falsely claimed that he was guilty of gross insubordination.

The school countered in its new petition (pdf) to the Supreme Court that Tucker behaved badly.

“His message accused Faith Christian students and parents of racism, which the message defined in terms of white privilege and systemic bias,” the petition stated. “Many students and parents complained to school leadership that Tucker’s message was political rather than biblical.”

FBCI concluded that Tucker’s message “was not consistent with church teaching.” The school met with Tucker, who disagreed with its interpretation of the Bible. Tucker wrote a letter to the school community about his views and began openly expressing disagreement with school leadership. The school relieved him of his role in planning and speaking at chapel services, and he eventually stopped working there, the petition stated.

Daniel Blomberg, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the school, said the Constitution prevents the government from interfering in the religious school’s policymaking.

“Churches should be free to pick their own chaplains and lead their own chapel services without judges or juries second-guessing them,” Blomberg told The Epoch Times.

“If it takes years of litigation and lawyers’ fees just to protect that right, then the First Amendment will be a dead letter for most religious groups. They’ll be priced out before the Constitution can ever kick in.”

When asked to comment, a spokesperson for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is representing Tucker, referred to a November 2022 statement that the organization issued when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit declined to grant the school’s request to halt the ongoing litigation.

In that statement, Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser said the circuit court ruling was “another win for the rule of law“ and a critical step in its ”fight to prevent the weaponization of religious freedom.”

“Gregg Tucker was fired because he tried to combat pervasive racism at the school. The courts should not allow religious freedom to be distorted as a license to discriminate and deny basic civil rights,” the statement reads.

The Supreme Court has asked Tucker’s lawyers to respond to the petition by March 10.