The Contraception Mandate

Caroline Mala Corbin*

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Health care in the United States is undergoing a sea change thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[1] Among the many firsts: employers that offer health insurance must cover certain preventive services for women, including contraception.[2] This requirement—often called the "contraception mandate"—has generated a huge outcry, especially from the U.S. Catholic hierarchy.[3] Although churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious institutions that predominately serve and employ people of their own faith are exempt, religiously affiliated institutions that serve and employ people of many different faiths—such as schools, hospitals, and social services providers—are not.[4] It is the lack of an exemption for the latter organizations that has generated protests.

The Irony of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC

Caroline Mala Corbin

Editor's Note: This essay is the first in a five-part series on Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, a major religion case currently pending in the Supreme Court. For the first time, the Court may squarely address the ministerial exception, a controversial doctrine that grants religious organizations immunity from employment discrimination suits by ministers, even where the discrimination is not religiously required. Our contributors, representing both sides of the scholarly debate, discuss the important doctrinal and policy implications of this landmark case.

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The question presented in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC is whether or not a schoolteacher should be considered a minister.  Although the school teacher in this case, Cheryl Perich, began her employment as a lay teacher, she soon became a called teacher with the title "commissioned minister."  She taught a religion class four times a week and led her class in daily prayers. During the bulk of her workday, however, Perich taught math, reading, English, social studies, science, gym, art, and music to third and fourth graders.