Trans Woman’s Case Against a Catholic School Goes to State Supreme Court

The Minnesota Supreme Court is considering whether transgender employees are protected from discrimination by Catholic and other religious employers. 

The question stems from a discrimination lawsuit filed in 2024 by Reyzl Grace MoChridhe, a transgender woman asuing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and her former employer, the Academy of Holy Angels,a Catholic high school in Richfield. MoChridhe worked as a librarian at the Academy of Holy Angels for a year, after which school administrators informed her that they would not renew her contract if she pursued her gender transition,MPRNews reported. 

Reyzl Grace MoChridhe

MoChridhe’s suit asserts that ending her employment violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act. While this law does include certain religious exemptions, MoChridhe argued that her job was secular and did not require her to be Catholic or follow the Church’s beliefs. Before being hired, she informed the school that she was Jewish, and the school did not consider this a hindrance to her employment. 

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, however, asked the courts to dismiss her case citing religious exemptions, and two lower courts have sided with them. The case now before the state Supreme Court focuses on the question of whether Catholic and other religious institutions are entitled by the First Amendment to have absolute freedom to ensure all staff adhere to religious standards. MPRNews reported:. 

“The court of appeals’ unprecedented decision strips even secular employees like MoChridhe of employment law protections,” said MoChridhe’s attorney, Greta Wiessner of Gender Justice. “This is not what the First Amendment requires. If it were, a religious institution could invoke its beliefs about race to fire a maintenance worker who enters an interracial marriage.

“That balance is just completely different when a religious institution chooses to hire a secular person who is not a member of their religion and who has not submitted or agreed to adhere to their faith-based principles.”

MoChridhe asserts that although religious institutions have broad discretion to hire and fire ministerial staff according to their religious standards, employees in secular positions should be protected under the Minnesota Human Rights Act. 

According to Courthouse News Service, during the Supreme Court hearing, some justices questioned how the courts could intervene without intruding on First Amendment rights. Justice Sarah Hennesy, suggested, “What this case really comes down to is whether the courts can compel any religious institution to hire employees who fundamentally disagree with sincerely held doctrinal beliefs.”

Justice Karl Procaccini pushed back against such an interpretation and cast skepticism on the suggestion that the religious institutions’ arguments would apply to other discrimination complaints across the board. Procaccini said to the archdiocesan attorney:

“You’re not arguing that all hiring and firing decisions fall under the church autonomy doctrine. If you were here on termination of a teacher of color, you wouldn’t be saying as a blanket rule, church autonomy covers hiring and firing. It feels like you want us to create a rule that it’s hiring and firing of trans folks that falls under church autonomy at this early stage when all we have is a complaint.” 

While the courts consider these questions, the biggest impact is still the one felt by MoChridhe who–regardless of the outcome of the case– is simply an individual who was fired for being their authentic self. In a statement following the hearing, she reflected:

“When I lost my job, I lost more than a paycheck.I lost a community I cared about and work that was intensely meaningful. My students wanted me there, and my colleagues wanted me there, but I was still terminated just for being honest and seeking the care that I needed. No one should have to choose between making a living and living a lie.” 

—Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, September 14, 2026