Trump administration defends a school in Mike Pence’s home state that fired a gay teacher

The administration is intervening in a state case to argue that a teacher can be legally fired for getting married.

The Trump administration is helping a Catholic archdiocese in Mike Pence’s home state that is being sued for firing a gay teacher, arguing that the federal government has “a substantial interest in religious liberty.”

For the past several years, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis has been fighting a war against LGBTQ teachers in its schools. So when Joshua Payne-Elliott, a social studies teacher at Cathedral High school in Indianapolis, married his husband in 2017, the Archbishop ordered the school to fire him.

Related: A Catholic Archdiocese fired a straight woman for supporting LGBTQ equality

Now he’s suing the Archdiocese in state court “alleging it illegally interfered with his contractual and employment relationship” with the school. The Archdiocese tried to get the case dismissed, arguing that it has a First Amendment right to tell a school to fire a teacher, but a judge rejected that plea, saying that the First Amendment only protects the church’s rights to fire people in certain positions, not social studies teachers.

Trump’s Justice Department filed a brief on the Archdiocese’s behalf as they appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court….

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