Kentucky’s lower courts had refused to allow a lawsuit filed by Dr. Jimmy Kirby to move forward, accepting the argument that since LTS—an ecumenical seminary of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—is a religious organization, it has the autonomy to hire and fire employees at will, and those decisions are exempt from judicial review. In making its ruling, the trial court deemed Kirby to be a ministerial employee because he helped the denomination to fulfill its religious mission.
After years of filings, hearings and motions, Kirby lost at the Kentucky Court of Appeals in a 3-0 decision in 2012, but the state Supreme Court agreed last year to hear the case.
In a ruling released last week by Chief Justice John D. Minton, the court ruled that, even though Kirby’s primary job function at the school was religious in nature, since he had an employment contract with the seminary, he should be able to seek redress as a result of his abrupt dismissal.
The case, Kirby v. Lexington Theological Seminary, has been followed closely by legal scholars, as it turns on the application and scope of the so-called “ministerial exception.” Once the case had reached the state Supreme Court last year, it had attracted briefs from national advocacy groups known for taking on legal matters of major consequence.
Kirby’s attorney, Amos Jones, who teaches law at Campbell University in North Carolina, has long argued that his client was never a ministerial employee of the seminary and that the dispute should be adjudicated based on contract principles and anti-discrimination statutes rather than being dismissed as too entangled with the internal affairs of a faith community.
Kirby, 70, who earned a doctorate in theology from Boston University and taught courses in social ethics for 15 years at the seminary, is an un-ordained layman who belongs to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
