PITTSBURGH - A federal magistrate judge says a gay teacher's discrimination lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg should head toward trial.
Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly on Feb. 24 issued her report and recommendations on the diocese's motion for summary judgment, telling District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan that it should be rejected.
Kenneth Ference sued the diocese and Aquinas Academy in 2022 in Pittsburgh federal court. He says he was fired from his position as a sixth-grade teacher once the defendants found out he is married to another man.
Ference is a Lutheran but was hired to teach at the Catholic school.
"(T)here is no evidence Mr. Ference publicly championed same-sex marriage," Kelly wrote. "Thus, his speech is not at issue.
"As to Defendants' speech, Mr. Ference's existence as a Lutheran in a same-sex marriage does not present expressive content contrary to the Catholic doctrine."
Ference started at the school in 2021 and said he would not be comfortable teaching religion. Principal Kelly Watkins hired him with the restriction he would be prohibited from teaching religious content.
When he filled out forms for insurance, he disclosed he was covered under his husband's health care plan. He was fired 26 days later, with the defendants saying his sexual orientation is a violation of their teachings and his employment contract.
The diocese and Aquinas said they were exempt from liability for employment decisions, but that argument was premature in their rejected motion to dismiss.
Kelly took on the issue when weighing the defendants' motion for summary judgment. She was tasked with deciding if Ference's termination was rooted in their religious beliefs.
They said Ference attended church services with students, though he said he was only there to chaperone. Testimony showed he never prayed with students or took communion.
The defendants said he did participate in morning and afternoon prayers over the school intercom, though he disputed that.
His employment agreement and other hiring documents said teachers could be dismissed for rejection of church doctrine or laws, including those related to abortion and homosexuality, but he said he believed that didn't apply to him as a Lutheran.
Kelly ultimately wrote that granting the defendants summary judgment would be a "significant expansion of immunity for religious institutions."
She relied on a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, in which a graphic designer refused to perform work for same-sex couples. The court found the First Amendment protected her, and the defendants in Ference's case argued the same.
"(C)onsidering the evidence in the light most favorable to Mr. Ference, Defendants do not present a basis for a jury to conclude that after they employed him in a secular role with no responsibility for religious faith formation, continued employment would 'amount to expressive conduct that communicates [Defendants'] views' within the meaning of the First Amendment," Kelly wrote.