§ 110.011.Civil Rights

An exception with an exception, and the second is the operative part.

Except as provided in Subsection (b), this chapter does not establish or eliminate a defense to a civil action or criminal prosecution under a federal or state civil rights law.

The general rule keeps the chapter out of civil rights litigation. It is neither a defence to a discrimination claim nor a bar to one.

Subsection (b) then carves out a defined field: the chapter is fully applicable to claims regarding the employment, education, or volunteering of those who perform duties, such as spreading or teaching faith, performing devotional services, or internal governance, for a religious organization.

That is the ministerial role, described by function rather than by title. Spreading or teaching faith, performing devotional services, internal governance — what the person does, not what they are called.

Defining by function is the right approach, since religious traditions differ enormously in how they title those who lead worship or teach.

Three relationships are covered — employment, education, and volunteering — which reaches beyond paid staff to lay volunteers and to students in religious training.

The definition of a religious organization has two cumulative requirements. Its primary purpose and function are religious, or it is a religious school organized primarily for religious and educational purposes, or a religious charity organized primarily for religious and charitable purposes; and it does not engage in activities that would disqualify it from tax exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code as it existed on August 30, 1999.

Fixing the tax code at a 1999 date is deliberate, so a later federal change cannot narrow or widen the state protection.