Dive Brief:

• The Kentucky Supreme Court issued two decisions in April that strengthen the rights of tenured professors at religious institutions, Inside Higher Ed reports.
• Both decisions were in cases brought by professors who were fired from the Lexington Theological Seminary, and both reversed lower court rulings that said the lawsuits could not go on.
• While the state Supreme Court did not rule on the particulars of the lawsuits — only that they should be heard — faculty advocates are calling the decisions significant for the rights of professors at religious institutions.

Dive Insight:

Both lawsuits were filed over 2009 layoffs by the seminary, which cut tenured faculty members as a part of budget reductions in the face of falling revenues. In one case, the Kentucky court ruled that churches and religious groups cannot use the so-called ministerial exception — which protects them from certain types of employment lawsuits — when they are sued over contractual matters unrelated to religious doctrine. In the other case, the court ruled that just because some professors at an institution are covered by the ministerial exception doesn’t meant that all are covered. Even though the court’s rulings are binding in Kentucky only, faculty advocates say they are important because of their timing during a national debate over the ministerial exception.