A U.S. appeals court panel on Tuesday will take up the latest high-profile case to test the limits of an exemption from anti-discrimination laws for religious schools, with a Colorado Christian academy claiming it should apply broadly to "teachers, chaplains and other leaders."

Daniel Blomberg of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who represents Faith Christian Academy, will urge a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that the "ministerial exception" shields the school from a former faculty member's claims that he was fired for organizing a chapel service focused on combatting racism.

The case is among the first involving the exemption to reach a federal appeals court since last July, when the U.S. Supreme Court in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru said it applies broadly to "any employee who leads a religious organization ... or serves as a messenger or teacher of its faith.”

Weeks earlier, a federal judge in Denver had said a jury should decide whether the exception applied to Gregory Tucker, who was the director of student life at Faith Christian Academy, and denied the school's motion for summary judgment in his 2019 lawsuit.

The school, armed with the Supreme Court ruling in its appeal, is pushing the 10th Circuit to adopt an even broader view of the exception that encompasses most employees of religious schools. Leaving it to a jury to decide whether individual employees are properly administering the faith would violate schools' rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Faith Christian says.

In a January amicus brief backing Tucker, the National Women's Law Center and 37 other advocacy groups, unions and bar associations warned the court against making it more difficult for employees of religious schools to pursue bias claims.

"Manipulation of the ministerial exception will strip more and more employees — like a receptionist seeking time off based on her disability, a math teacher facing racial and sexual harassment, or a janitor paid less based on her national origin -- of crucial civil rights unless courts carefully cabin the exemption," the groups wrote.

The Becket Fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bradley Girard of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who represents Tucker, said the case illustrates "a frightening trend" of religious employers seeking to extend the exemption far beyond their ability to freely choose clergy.

"The ministerial exception ... was never intended to be a free pass for any religious employer to discriminate against their entire workforce and sidestep civil-rights laws," Girard said.

Tucker worked for several years as a science teacher at Faith Christian, and in 2014 was given additional responsibilities as a chaplain, including organizing weekly chapel meetings and meeting with students and parents. He chose the title "director of student life" because it had no religious connotation, according to filings in the case.

Tucker was fired in early 2018 after several students and parents complained about a chapel meeting he had organized promoting racial diversity. He sued the school, alleging race discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Faith Christian argued that the ministerial exception applied, and Tucker countered that he was not a "minister" because he did not teach religion or lead students in prayer.

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson in his ruling last June denying summary judgment to the school said Tucker's exact duties and the extent to which they involved the school's religious mission were in dispute and should be resolved by a jury.

In an October brief, Faith Christian's parent, Faith Bible Chapel International, told the 10th Circuit that the whole point of the ministerial exception is to shield religious organizations from the scrutiny that comes with a jury trial.

"If Faith Bible is right that the (exception) bars suit in this case, all of this upcoming discovery and litigation rings a bell that cannot be unrung," the school's lawyers wrote.

The 10th Circuit panel includes Circuit Judges Robert Bacharach, David Ebel & Carolyn McHugh.

The case is Tucker v. Faith Bible Chapel International, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 20-1230.