Ave Maria Law School Claims Ministerial Exception

AveWatch earlier this month reported on the unusual defense mounted by Ave Maria University in a lawsuit against it by a law professor Stephen Safranek whose tenure and employment were terminated. In a motion to dismiss (full text) filed June 1, Ave Maria claims that it is a religious institution and that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine precludes civil court jurisdiction in the case. The motion argues that Ave Maria faculty were ministerial employees as a matter of law because the Law School's Faculty Handbook required them to integrate the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church Plaintiff's response to the motion calls it "so untenable it is difficult to absorb on one reading."