Lots of depressing news today, how about some good news?

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog about how the St. Vincent de Paul School and the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese fired an English teacher after finding out she was on birth control. The teacher, Emily Herx, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit – it turns out you can’t fire someone for doing something that’s perfectly legal. The diocese then argued it shouldn’t even have to show up in court because of “religious freedom.”

Herx filed a discrimination lawsuit in 2012. In response, St. Vincent de Paul School and the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, her former employers, countered with an argument used by a growing number of religious groups to justify firings related to IVF treatment or pregnancies outside of marriage: Freedom of religion gives them the right to hire (or fire) whomever they choose. But the diocese took one big step further. It is arguing that, in this instance, its religious liberty rights protect the school from having to go to court at all. “I’ve never seen this before, and I couldn’t find any other cases like it,” says Brian Hauss, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Center for Liberty. The group is not directly involved in the lawsuit but has filed amicus briefs supporting Herx. “What the diocese is saying is, ‘We can fire anybody, and we have absolute immunity from even going to trial, as long as we think they’re violating our religion. And to have civil authorities even look into what we’re doing is a violation.’…It’s astonishing.”

Yesterday the 7th Circuit told them they didn’t get immunity from legal challenge just for being religious. Emily Herx will now get her day in court.