2y ago

New Jersey Supreme Court backs school that fired teacher over premarital sex

thehill.com New Jersey Supreme Court backs school that fired teacher over premarital sex

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Roman Catholic school in a case involving employment discrimination allegations from an employee who was terminated after she became pregnant out of…

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Unpopular opinion, but..
She signed a contact saying she would abide by Catholic law, which includes abstaining from premarital sex, as a condition of employment. She broke the contract. We can agree or disagree until the cows come home about how ridiculous said employment clause is in this day in age, but she broke a binding contract with a religious establishment. If you don't want to get fired for getting knocked up, don't work for a church affiliated establishment.
- Now change she by he, and nobody will enforce this clause of the contract. She’s fired because she’s a woman who dares to have premarital sex.
- Only if it equally applies to men who get someone else pregnant out of wedlock.
  Also it's supposed to be federally illegal.
  The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) makes it illegal for employers with 15 or more employees to discriminate against women because of pregnancy, child-birth, abortion, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth. Pregnant workers must be provided with the same benefits and accommodations and treated the same as non-pregnant workers who have similar abilities or limitations to their work.
  
  I don't know about this case and this school, but in stricter Christian private schools, the men get kicked out too. One of my high school teachers was a principal at a Christian private school, and he got kicked out because his wife cheated on him.
  He didn't cheat on her or get anyone pregnant, she did while he was overworked at that school, but that was somehow a scandal / shame that reflected poorly on him and the school, so he was fired. Most "Christian" institutions are hypocritical pieces of shit that don't follow their own rules or apply them selectively, but others follow their laws to the letter.
  Not that those places are good either, they just enforce their standards. To be fair, those places tend to note be affiliated with Republicans, which kill everything they touch and is the major reason I left the church.
  
  Want to preface it with: I hate this and think it’s stupid BUT:
  They didn’t fire her BECAUSE she was pregnant. They fired her for having premarital sex. The pregnancy was just the proof of said premarital sex.
  
  She should go with the parthenogenesis defense. It was gods willl…
  …. It worked once.
  
  "Prove that I had sex."
  "Well, you're pregnant, that means you had sex!"
  "So you're saying it's absolutely impossible to get pregnant without having sex?"
  "😵"
  "Thank you, I'll go back to work."
- I respect the voicing an opinion that goes against the grain, but...
  That school gets federal funds. We pay for these idiots to teach nonsense.
  Contracts shouldn't be able to violate basic freedoms. Don't like it, work elsewhere, right?
  Check the contract/waiver for your cell phone, mortgage, bank, school, employment, etc. Odds are there's an arbitration mandate. Guess who arbitration sides with 95+% of the time. The guys who pay them.
  Contracts state ridiculously evil shit. There are too many contracts to read. Organizations push for too much. We should not be able to sign away fundamental rights.
  Try getting a job, cell phone, apartment, etc., without signing away basic rights. It's only getting harder.
  Edit: Stupid phone typos
  
  You spelled contract wrong four times in that comment.
  
  Ugh. For some reason this phone just does not like that word.
  
  Contracts shouldn’t be able to violate basic freedoms
  Having any specific job isn't a basic freedom. You aren't entitled to a paycheck from anyone.
  
  I'm not saying having a job is a freedom. What happens when every job includes a clause that says "you can't sue us, no matter what." Because most of the contracts that you sign already say that. Every Cellular service does. Most factories do. I work in software and pretty much every gig I've ever worked included something along those lines.
  It's not always enforcable, but this kind of thing inches us closer.
  
  Sounds like a good reason to not take those contracts. If enough people find the terms to be bad and refuse them, companies ultimately have to change the terms if they want employees.
  
  I agree in theory. Except most people don't care, or don't know to look for those things. Pretty soon it's all you run into. Gamer? Micro transactions are in basically everything now. Farmer? Check out what John Deer does. Need healthcare, good luck. Military? No thanks. Software? What all of the big players has trickled down. Factory work? That language has already been there a long time, often at the state level. Look at the maximum you can get for a lost arm in Alabama. Hint: it's less than $50k Etc. Etc.
  
  If the average person doesn't care, then there's nothing wrong with the average person getting whacked with the consequences of their actions. I, for one, would definitely not take a job specifically on the terms of not having premarital sex if I intended to have premarital sex.
  And as for state-level law making these terms guaranteed, it certainly seems like a damn good argument for not fucking regulating everything into the ground.
  
  So you've read every EULA you've ever signed (that thing you agree to on every site, ever piece of software, etc.)? It would take decades to read them all. It's too much. Basic protections and regulations keep us alive.
  You benefit from those annoying regulations every time you eat from a restaurant or grocery store. Do you go inspect the back room personally? Prior to the FDA there was rotten meat, and literal poison. You just don't have time to inspect everything single thing you do. Regulations aren't fun, but they keep us alive. I would wager anything that you've unknowingly agreed to some awful terms for many things. You just haven't been burned yet.
  
  Most countries have pretty strict laws about protected characteristics that you can't sack people over and getting pregnant is one, regardless of how it happens.
- Being put in a contract doesn't magically make illegal things legal.
- So an employer can demand that employees don't have kids? Or make them sign a contract saying they won't marry someone from another race? Or fire someone if they get a blood transfusion? Employers shouldn't have a say on anything (legal) you do outside of work.
  
  Why shouldn't people be free to entire entirely voluntary contracts over what they do?
- I don't do think that would even be legal to include in an employment contract where I live.

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