Update on the Law Against Discrimination in New Jersey
In a case out of New Jersey, the plaintiff sued a Catholic school after she was fired. She said that the Catholic Church or the Catholic school violated the Law Against Discrimination because the school fired her because she became pregnant, though she was not married. The trial court granted the Catholic Church's motion for summary judgment. The Appellate Division reversed. The Catholic Church appealed and the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Division.
The Court stated that the Catholic Church correctly invoked the religious tenets exception to New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination. The plaintiff's contract stated that she had to abide by the principles of Catholicism, and by having premarital sex, she violated those sacred principles.