{"id":220499,"date":"2026-01-14T16:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?post_type=case&p=220499"},"modified":"2026-01-15T10:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:10:08","slug":"john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services","title":{"rendered":"John Doe v. Catholic Relief Services"},"menu_order":0,"template":"","supreme_court_term":[],"court":[],"class_list":["post-220499","case","type-case","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"case_number":"No. 25-1569","featured_image":"","issues":[46695],"court_type":"other","case_type":false,"supreme_court_term":null,"state_territory_affiliate":[341],"status":"ongoing","date_updated":"20260114","whats_at_stake":"The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to affirm that religious employers such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are not exempt from complying with employment discrimination laws.","call_to_action":null,"summary":"John Doe filed suit against his employer CRS after the organization revoked health insurance coverage for his spouse solely because his spouse is a man. The District Court found that CRS violated the Equal Pay Act and Title VII by engaging in sex-based discrimination. CRS appealed the decision, asserting, among other issues, that the church autonomy doctrine and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) shield it from liability.\r\n\r\nOur amicus brief argues that the church autonomy doctrine is limited in scope and applies only to internal disputes over religious doctrine and ministerial employment. The church autonomy doctrine does not allow religious employers to sidestep neutral, generally applicable civil rights laws. Such an interpretation would effectively grant religious employers blanket immunity from anti-discrimination laws, a contention that has been explicitly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.\r\n\r\nThe brief also argue that RFRA only restricts the government, not private citizens, and thus cannot be used as a defense in a private-party lawsuits. Because this case involves a private party seeking to enforce federal employment protections, RFRA offers no legal shield for CRS\u2019s conduct.","case_decision":"","featured_case":false,"legal_project":"The Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief (PFRB)","date_filed":null,"administration_challenged":"Trump","constitutional_principle":[],"drupal_node_id":"","legal_documents":[{"court":1926,"documents":[{"document_options":"document","document":220503,"title":"ACLU and Americans United Amicus Brief","subtitle":"","date_filed":"20260109","drupal_node_id":"","slug":"","child_documents":null}]}],"plaintiffs":"","co-counsel":"","press_releases_related_to_cases":"","related_content_cases":"","related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":""},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to affirm that religious employers such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are not exempt from complying with employment discrimination laws.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Doe v. Catholic Relief Services | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to affirm that religious employers such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are not exempt from complying with employment discrimination laws.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-15T15:10:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services\",\"name\":\"John Doe v. Catholic Relief Services | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-14T21:08:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-15T15:10:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to affirm that religious employers such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are not exempt from complying with employment discrimination laws.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to affirm that religious employers such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are not exempt from complying with employment discrimination laws.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"John Doe v. Catholic Relief Services | American Civil Liberties Union","og_description":"The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to affirm that religious employers such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are not exempt from complying with employment discrimination laws.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services","og_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","article_modified_time":"2026-01-15T15:10:08+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@aclu","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services","name":"John Doe v. Catholic Relief Services | American Civil Liberties Union","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-01-14T21:08:12+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-15T15:10:08+00:00","description":"The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to affirm that religious employers such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are not exempt from complying with employment discrimination laws.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/john-doe-v-catholic-relief-services"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/","name":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.","inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case\/220499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/case"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case\/220499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220548,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case\/220499\/revisions\/220548"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/affiliate_info\/341"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"supreme_court_term","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supreme_court_term?post=220499"},{"taxonomy":"court","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/court?post=220499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}