SW News: A federal appeals court in the American state of Indiana has declared that religiously affiliated schools are free to select administrators supporting their fundamental religious views. The seventh circuit court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Shelly Fitzgerald after her contract as co-director of guidance at a Catholic high school in Indianapolis wasn't renewed.

Fitzgerald sued the Roncalli High School and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis after the institution failed to renew her contract upon learning that she entered a same-sex union, violating her agreement and Catholic teaching.

However, the court dismissed her claim, holding that the Constitution prohibits the government from meddling in a religious school's decision over who would teach the next generation of believers. According to the Roncalli High School policy, the teachers, administrators, and guidance counselors are asked to sign an agreement stating that they would uphold the Catholic Church teachings in both their word and deed. This is because, in school, education is not merely teaching the subjects but rather forming the students' emotions and reasoning in the Catholic faith.

Becket Law is the legal advocacy group representing the Christian school and the Archdiocese. Welcoming the ruling, a counsel at the firm, Joseph Davis, said that religious schools exist to pass on the faith to the next generation, and for that to happen, they need the freedom to choose leaders committed to their faith. "The precedent keeps piling up: Catholic schools can ask Catholic school teachers and administrators to be fully supportive of Catholic teaching," he added.

The appeals court ruling is the most recent in a line of court rulings defending the leadership preferences of the Archdiocese and other religious institutions. A similar claim brought by a different guidance counselor at Roncalli High School was dismissed by a federal court last summer in Starkey v. Roncalli High School and Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Soon after, in Payne-Elliot v. Archdiocese of Indianapolis, the Indiana Supreme Court followed the same.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald has 90 days to petition the US Supreme Court to review the decision.