Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit were wary of expanding a shield for religious institutions facing job discrimination lawsuits, suggesting that a fired gay teacher’s bias case may need to be resolved under a First Amendment defense his employer waived.

Lonnie Billard, a substitute teacher at Charlotte Catholic High School, claimed in a 2017 lawsuit that the school’s decision to fire him after he announced on social media his plan to marry his boyfriend constituted illegal sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The North Carolina school argues that a statutory provision exempts religious institutions from discrimination claims if a personnel decision was motivated by the organization’s religious beliefs.

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