NLRB Rejects RFRA Claim of Religious College

On August 26, the National Labor Relations Board issued its decision in Carroll College, Inc. and International Union, UAW , involving a religious college's challenge under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to forcing it to engage in collective bargaining with its faculty. (See prior posting). Carroll College argued that requiring it to bargain collectively would interfere with its right to decide autonomously whether faculty members are satisfactorily conforming to the Protestant theological tradition and the tenets of the "reformed" Presbyterian Church. The Board held, however, that this contention was not supported by the evidence. Hypothetical possibilities are not enough to satisfy RFRA's requirement that there be a substantial burden on free exercise of religion before its provisions apply. In so holding, the Board made it clear that they would follow the 2002 decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in NLRB v. University of Great Falls, that RFRA could apply even though a religiously affiliated school was not completely exempt from the NLRA. [Thanks to Steven Sholk for the lead on this decision.]