## Facts

- Sandor Demkovich worked for a Catholic parish as music director (also choir director and organist), with responsibilities for planning liturgies and selecting and performing music for Mass and sacraments.
- Demkovich alleged that the parish pastor subjected him to repeated verbal abuse and derogatory remarks about his sexual orientation, weight, and medical conditions.
- After Demkovich entered a same-sex marriage, the pastor demanded his resignation; when he refused, he was terminated.
- Demkovich pursued hostile work environment claims under Title VII (sexual orientation) and the ADA (disability), focused on alleged harassment during employment rather than challenging the termination decision itself.
- The district court concluded Demkovich was a “minister” and dismissed the hostile-environment claims under the First Amendment ministerial exception; a Seventh Circuit panel partially reversed; the Seventh Circuit reheard the case en banc.

## Issues

1. Whether the First Amendment ministerial exception bars a minister’s Title VII and ADA hostile work environment claims against a religious employer based on alleged harassment occurring during ministerial supervision.
2. Whether the ministerial exception is limited to challenges to tangible employment actions (such as hiring and firing) or also covers disputes arising from supervision and treatment during the ministerial employment relationship.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit (en banc) held that the ministerial exception barred Demkovich’s Title VII and ADA hostile work environment claims.
- The court reasoned that the constitutional protection covers the entire ministerial employment relationship, including “the supervising in between” hiring and firing.
- The court reversed the panel decision and directed dismissal of the hostile-environment claims.

## Legal Principles

- The ministerial exception, grounded in the Religion Clauses, prevents civil adjudication of employment disputes between a religious organization and its ministers that would interfere with the organization’s authority to select, control, and supervise those who minister to the faithful.
- The exception is not confined to claims challenging hiring or firing; it extends to claims requiring judicial evaluation of the content, tone, persistence, and reasonableness of communications and supervision within a ministerial relationship.
- Hostile work environment claims by ministers typically risk excessive entanglement because they require courts to apply secular standards (e.g., “severe or pervasive”) to workplace interactions bound up with religious supervision and internal governance.
- Courts may not create a severity-based carve-out for “egregious” minister-on-minister harassment where adjudication would still intrude into protected religious autonomy.
- When the ministerial exception applies, it operates as a constitutional bar to enforcement of otherwise applicable federal antidiscrimination statutes in that employment relationship.

## Conclusion

The en banc Seventh Circuit ruled that because Demkovich served in a ministerial role, the First Amendment ministerial exception foreclosed his Title VII and ADA hostile work environment claims arising from alleged harassment by his supervising pastor during the course of ministerial employment.


Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Par., 3 F.4th 968 (7th Cir. 2021) (en banc)