2/19/2026
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Eastern

Register for this Event

NELA Nite at Noon: "Emerging Lawyer Roundtable" (2/19/26)
 
February 19, 2026 from 12-1:00 PM EST via Zoom Webinar
1.0 CLE Credit (Professional Practice)
$25 NELA and affiliate Members / $50 Non-Members

The Ministerial Exception is a judge-made doctrine emanating from the First Amendment's religious clauses protecting religious employer’s autonomy in personnel decisions. In December, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in Sander v. Westchester Reform Temple that the ministerial exception precludes liability for the Temple for terminating an employee whose job description included the job duties of a minister, including “teaching religious texts…and weekly Torah portions, as well as planning and attending religious programming” and posted blogs critical of Israel and Zionism in her personal time. Two days later, The First Department ruled in Boliak v. Reilly that the ministerial exception has limits, including that religious employer may not subject employees to a hostile work environment unrelated to their religious expression because “it was not intended as a shield from all types of workplace conduct." Can these decisions be easily squared? Join us for a conversation with the NELA/NY member litigators behind these scenes, including Steve Bergstein of Bergstein & Ullrich, Arlene Boop of Alterman & Boop, LLP, and James deBoer of Stulberg & Walsh to learn about the trajectory of the Ministerial Exception and what we can expect from New York courts and how they will balance state and federal anti-discrimination mandates against religious liberty protections.  
 
 

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2/19/2026

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