Religious Entity Employers Are Still Exempt Under FEHA

The California Court of Appeal -- Sixth District -- has held that the addition of the word person to California Government Code §12940(h) was to ensure that the catch-all retaliation subdivision included all entities covered by the preceding subdivisions; there is no legislative history indicating the Legislature also intended by that addition to allow an employee fired by a religious entity employer to circumvent the religious entity exemption by characterizing the employer as a person for purposes of a retaliation suit. (See, Mathews v. Happy Valley Conference Center, Inc. - filed Dec. 12, 2019 -- 2019 S.O.S. 4252.)