INDIANA – Attorney General Todd Rokita is defending religious liberty in a case involving the right of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to uphold church teachings on same-sex marriage in hiring and firing decisions.
“Our founding fathers guaranteed religious liberty at the very beginning of the Bill of Rights,” Attorney General Rokita said. “That’s no coincidence. Religious liberty is America’s first freedom. Here in Indiana, I will do everything in my power to protect this liberty for Hoosiers.”
Attorney General Rokita on Friday filed an amicus brief supporting the Archdiocese’s right to require Catholic schools under its authority to enforce a morality clause barring employees from same-sex marriages. A male teacher at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis sued the Archdiocese after getting fired following his marriage to another man.
Courts should not “permit litigation over whether and how the Archdiocese may recognize Catholic schools,” Attorney General Rokita writes in the brief. “The United States has a long tradition of preventing judicial entanglement in religious disputes — an entanglement that can only lead to interference with church autonomy.”
Last fall, Attorney General Rokita filed an amicus brief with the Indiana Court of Appeals supporting the Archdiocese in this case. At this juncture, he is supporting the Archdiocese in a petition to transfer deliberation to the Indiana Supreme Court.
In a separate but very similar case, Attorney General Rokita in January led a 16-state coalition defending the right of Roncalli High School in Indianapolis to uphold Catholic doctrine on same-sex marriage.
Friday’s brief is attached.
