[blindlaw] Re the ADA in churches

[Elizabeth Rene]

Whether the ADA applies to churches may have to be decided on a case by case 
basis.  But the Supreme Court's decision seems to say that the ADA, or any 
other employment-related statute, cannot be enforced against churches in 
matters between them and their ministers (and here I'm reading "lay and 
ordained, volunteer or professional, nuns and monks."  Because judicial 
oversight of the relationship between a minister and his or her religious 
superiors would violate the First Amendment's separation of church and 
state, and would infringe the constitutional rights of religious faith 
communities to govern themselves according to their own belief systems.  The 
court's decision was based upon the Constitution, and not on the ADA itself.

Anyone needing to know whether the ADA could help them in relation to a 
specific church-related situation would need to consult his or her own 
attorney to see whether the ADA could apply to the particular facts.

>From where I sit, getting a faith community to adopt the ADA's principles 
might be more easily accomplished through education and persuasion than 
through enforcement.

Just witness what's happened in churches over the past thirty years or so to 
see how change does and does not come about.

Elizabeth