Catholic Hospital Succeeds In Defense Against Wiccan's Title VII Claim

In Saeemodarae v. Mercy Health Services-Iowa Corp., (ND IA, Oct. 6, 2006), an Iowa federal district court held that the religious organization exemption in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act could be invoked by a hospital founded by the Sisters of Mercy to defend against Title VII religious discrimination and retaliation claims. Plaintiff , a telemetry technician, alleged that the hospital fired her because of her Wiccan religious beliefs and activities, including her reading Wiccan literature while at work. The court held that the exemption applied to preclude the lawsuit even where plaintiff's work for the religious organization was secular in nature. The court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiff's discrimination claim brought under state law, and so refused to decide whether the religious institution exemption in the Iowa Civil Rights Act is narrower than that in federal law.