January 11, 2012 2:30PM # Hosanna Indeed: High Court Affirms Religious Liberty in ‘Ministerial Exception’ Case By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) --- SHARE By a unanimous vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion and Justice Samuel Alito (joined by Justice Elena Kagan) and Justice Clarence Thomas writing separate concurrences, the Supreme Court [today affirmed](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-553.pdf) the “ministerial exception” which prevents federal agencies and courts from second-guessing churches’ decisions on who to hire and retain as teachers, leaders, and ministers. The Obama administration had taken the disturbing position that there should be no ministerial exception at all to stand between churches and the full panoply of official employment regulation, though it acknowledged that constitutional freedom of association might afford churches some autonomy. I wrote about the case [last fall](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/religious-clash) and Notre Dame’s Richard Garnett has an early account of today’s decision [at NRO “Bench Memos”](http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/287858/win-religious-freedom-richard-garnett). ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).