In Doe v. Catholic Relief Services, (D MD, April 21, 2025), a Maryland federal district court held that the religious corporation exemption from the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act does not apply to the termination of spousal health care benefits of the same-sex spouse of a data analyst and advisor working for Catholic Relief Services. The Maryland Supreme Court had previously held that “in order for the exemption to apply, the employee’s duties must directly further the core mission(s) – religious or secular, or both – of the religious entity.” Finding the exemption inapplicable here, the court said in part:
… [T]he evidence preponderantly demonstrates that Doe’s … duties and responsibilities were sufficiently apart from effectuating CRS goals (and core mission) such that his … job activities and responsibilities were far attenuated from, and not reasonably capable of bringing about (or preventing effectuation of), CRS goals or missions. Doe did not directly serve the poor and vulnerable overseas, solicit or secure funding for projects, or possess authority to determine how CRS would pursue its mission through its programs. Nor did Doe manage or supervise any employee with such responsibilities…. The evidence is that from time to time, he may have been called upon to assist those who were responsible for undertaking actions that effect CRS’s goals; yet he was always one or more steps removed from taking action that effect CRS goals or that bear such responsibility. …
Because the court concludes that none of Doe’s five full-time positions with CRS directly furthered a CRS mission, and that each of his positions was one or more steps removed from taking the actions that effect CRS goals, the court similarly concludes that CRS has not met its burden to show that MFEPA’s religious entity exemption applies here. …
Assuming without deciding that CRS has made the threshold showing of a burden on its free exercise rights by operation of MFEPA,.., the court concludes that CRS fails to demonstrate that MFEPA is not neutral and generally applicable in its application to CRS here.