On January 11, 2012, the Supreme Court decided
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, one of the most highly anticipated religious rights cases to reach the Supreme Court in decades. In its
opinion, the Court recognized for the first time the "ministerial exception" and held that the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment prevented a former "called" teacher in a Lutheran school from suing her employer for employment discrimination.