N.J. high court sides with Catholic school that fired unwed pregnant teacher

The New Jersey Supreme Court has sided with a Catholic school that fired an unmarried teacher for getting pregnant, saying an exemption in the state’s anti-discrimination law allows religious employers to enforce codes of conduct in line with their faith.

Attorneys for Victoria Crisitello had argued that her 2014 termination from St. Theresa School in Kenilworth was illegal because the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination lists marital status and pregnancy as specially protected classes.

But in a unanimous decision released Monday, the state’s top court reversed an appellate ruling in Crisitello’s favor and dismissed her discrimination lawsuit.

Justice Lee Solomon, who penned the opinion, cited the same law’s clear “religious tenets exception,” which allows St. Theresa’s to require its employees to abide by Catholic law.

Crisitello signed a code of conduct when she was first hired as a toddler room caregiver in 2011, and school officials have been “steadfast” in attributing her termination to behavior that betrayed church teachings, rather than her unwed, pregnant status, Solomon wrote.

Crisitello’s termination also came after another Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Newark fired an unmarried male teacher who revealed his girlfriend was pregnant with their child, Solomon noted.

“The uncontroverted fact is that St. Theresa’s followed the religious tenets of the Catholic Church in terminating Crisitello,” he wrote. “Crisitello, a practicing Catholic and graduate of the St. Theresa School, acknowledged that St. Theresa’s required her to abide by the tenets of the Catholic faith, including that she abstain from premarital sex, as a condition of her employment. In other words, St. Theresa’s required adherence to Catholic law, and Crisitello knowingly violated Catholic law.”

Trial judges dismissed Crisitello’s lawsuit twice, but appellate judges reinstated it.

In court arguments before the Supreme Court in April, Crisitello’s attorneys called her firing unfair, saying the school didn’t ask how many other employees engaged in premarital sex or otherwise transgressed against the church, so it did not apply its code of conduct to everyone.

But Solomon rejected that argument too, writing that the state’s anti-discrimination law doesn’t require such investigation, “and the court declines to impose this burden.” Crisitello voluntarily revealed her pregnancy to St. Theresa’s principal, Solomon added.

The ruling in the long-contested case is a win for religious employers. Several faith-based groups, including the New Jersey Catholic Conference and Agudath Israel of America, had filed supporting briefs warning that allowing Crisitello’s lawsuit to advance would infringe upon religious employers’ decisions regarding faith, doctrine, and internal governance.

Attorney Peter Verniero represented St. Theresa School.

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court upheld the rights of religious employers to act consistent with their religious tenets, and that the court found that St. Theresa School did so here,” Verniero said. “Equally important, the court found no evidence of discrimination in this case. This is a significant validation of St. Theresa School’s rights as a religious employer.”