Sex Discrimination in Universities

• Key point. The civil courts ordinarily will not interfere with the decisions of religious organizations to dismiss clergy or other church employees who perform ministerial functions.

A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit by a nun claiming that her employer, the Catholic University of America, discriminated against her on the basis of her gender in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A nun with a doctoral degree in canon law was employed as a professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America. She applied for academic tenure after 6 years of teaching, and her application was denied on the basis of "marginal performance in teaching and scholarly publications." She later filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), claiming that the university's decision to deny her tenure on the basis of marginal performance was a mere ...