Editor's Note: This essay is the third 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.
Introduction
Law is filled with stories without endings. Case reports and law review articles generally conclude with the judgment on a case. Once judgment is rendered, either by a judge or by a scholar analyzing an opinion, it is unusual for anyone to consider what happens next.[1] In drama, a gun that appears onstage in Act I is sure to go off in Act III: the play has not ended until there is a climax; until the full narrative has reached its conclusion.[2] In law, the curtain often draws shut abruptly at the end of Act II.

