Michele Curay-Cramer v. Ursuline Academy, et al.Ursuline Academy is a K-12 Catholic school in Wilmington, Delaware that primarily serves young women and exclusively so at upper-grade levels. In January 2003, Michele Curay-Cramer, a religion teacher at Ursuline, co-signed a full-page ad with hundreds of others in the Wilmington News Journal, commemorating the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade and expressing support for abortion rights. The ad conflicted with fundamental Catholic teaching on abortion, and when the school confronted Curay-Cramer with the ad, she declined to recant her views and was subsequently fired.
Ms. Curay-Cramer filed an initial complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging Ursuline with terminating her employment in violation of the Civil Rights Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. After the EEOC dismissed the complaint, Ms. Curay-Cramer filed a federal lawsuit bringing the same charges against the school and the Wilmington Diocese. The Becket Fund assisted the school and the Diocese in having the claims dismissed from federal court. In a motion to dismiss, the Diocese asked that the court recognize its First Amendment rights to regulate its own affairs regarding teaching and doctrine.
In dismissing Ms. Curay-Cramer’s complaint, Judge Kent Jordan of the Delaware federal district court unequivocally agreed: “Short of a declaration that the Pope should pass draft encyclicals through the courts for approval, it is hard to conceive of a more obvious violation of the free exercise rights of the Catholic Church or a clearer case of inappropriate entanglement of church and state…It is not the place of this or any other court to say what system of beliefs constitutes ‘true’ Catholicism or makes for a ‘good’ Catholic. Ours is a system which, wonderfully, forbids any intrusion of the sort.”
Ms. Curay-Cramer appealed her case to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued a decision in June 2006 ending the litigation in favor of the school and the diocese.
News Media Coverage:
Judge asked to discard teacher's suit (The News-Journal, by Mary Allen, December 16, 2003) [Links to Delaware News Journal archive]
Articles & News Items- "First Amendment bars teacher's suit against Catholic school, diocese," February 3, 2004
- "Federal court upholds Catholic school’s right to dismiss religion teacher," November 16, 2004
- ""Catholic school has right to reject teacher," Wilmington News Journal, Nov. 19, 2004," November 19, 2004
- "Brief defends freedom of religious schools to choose religion teachers based on religion," March 25, 2005
- "Victory for Ursuline Academy in the Third Circuit," June 7, 2006
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