2nd Circuit upholds freedom of church to choose its leaders
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Jeremiah Galus regarding the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit’s decision Friday in Fratello v. Archdiocese of New York to uphold the freedom of a church to decide who will serve as its religious leaders:“The First Amendment plainly protects a church’s freedom to decide who serves as its religious leaders, as the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged only five years ago. The 2nd Circuit correctly recognized that this freedom extends to choosing a religious school’s principal—a position that is perhaps a school’s most important. Governmental inference here would have amounted to nothing less than state control of a religious school—something the First Amendment clearly forbids. ADF was honored to file a friend-of-the-court brief in this case on behalf of the Orthodox Church in America, which supports the foundational constitutional freedom that the Second Circuit upheld.”
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ABOUT Jeremiah Galus
Jeremiah Galus serves as senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is a key member of the Center for Christian Ministries. Since joining ADF in 2015, Galus has represented a wide array of religious ministries, schools, and churches, litigating cases at all levels of state and federal court. Prior to joining ADF, Galus worked as an attorney with a large law firm in Washington, D.C., where he focused on complex civil litigation. He also served as a prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2009 and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in government and political affairs from Millersville University in 2006. Galus also completed the ADF leadership development program to become a Blackstone Fellow in 2007 and is a member of the state bar in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.