Maguire vs Marquette University. Maguire filed an appeal saying that
she had been discriminated based on gender after being denied the associate
professor of theology at Marquette a very highly Catholic university. She filed
under Title VII that she was denied because she was a woman. Marquette replied
that her being a woman had nothing to do with her not being hired but that her
resume simply didn't compete with other applicants.
Maguire was denied the appeal and the case was dismissed because Title
VII can only prove cases where misconduct happens because of race, gender,
nationalitynational she had no proof.
Maguire then said the actual reasom for not being hired was because of
her pro choice view of abortion which clased with the Catholic university's
disbelief of abortion. The plaintiff alleged that Marquette's refusal to hire
her because of her views on abortion violated the Wisconsin common law of
academic freedom and Marquette's own policies regarding academic freedom. The
district court dismissed this claim. it dismissed it because it relied on its
understanding that the Title VII exemption for religious employers and the
First Amendment prohibited a federal court from examining the hiring decisions
made by the theology department at Marquette.
We agree with the court in this situation. If she had been able to file
under the second reason from the beginning saying that she wasn't being hired
because of her beliefs and was being denied academic freedom she would have had
a better case. To try and use her being a woman as a reason to say she wasn't
getting the job didn't make sense and in the end lost her the case.
This problem is interesting because I think that there could have been a strong case, but the way the claims were initially presented discredited the entire case.
ReplyDeleteMaguire was denied tenure because of certain beliefs. This obviously has nothing to do with her gender and she could not have any proof of her termination relating to her sex.
It would have been reasonable for Maguire to assert that she was denied academic freedom and religious discrimination under Title VII. Because Marquette is so rooted in it's Catholic faith, they, especially the theology department, have the opportunity to prefer Catholic applicants. Therefore, Marquette denied Maguire legitimately.