Ministerial exception and breach of contract claims

[Charles Sullivan]

<<<Or would determining whether she was satisfactorily performing her
contractual duties -- even in the absence of theological language in the
contract -- necessarily involve such entanglement that a civil court can't
enforce such a contract?>>>

We have to be pretty careful here. It is true that, from an ex post
perspective, churches might be happy to escape contracts they've come to
regret. But from an ex ante perspective refusing to enforce contracts would
be the equivalent of saying that churches couldn't enter them, which could
severely hamper their activities. It might be, of course, that enforcing
some contracts would still be beyond the power of the courts because of the
risks of entanglement, but casting that net very wide would not be a
church-friendly act. This may or may not be the same point about waiving
constitutional rights; it may be about discriminating against churches.

Charlie
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|Charles A. Sullivan                                                       |
|Professor of Law                                                          |
|Seton Hall Law School                                                     |
|One Newark Center                                                         |
|Newark, NJ 07102                                                          |
|Tel.: 973· 642·8870                                                       |
|Fax: 973· 642·8194                                                        |
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  |SSRN Page                                                                    |
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