Latest Case: State v. Narcovich (Criminal Law)

A Whistleblower “Minister” Loses in the Illinois Supreme Court

LESLIE C. GRIFFIN

UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Leslie C. Griffin comments on a recent decision by the Illinois Supreme Court characterizing a “lay principal” at a Catholic school as a “minister” and therefore dismissing her claim under the Illinois Whistleblower Act under the so-called “ministerial exception.” Professor Griffin argues that the ministerial exception gives churches pure religious freedom to dismiss all legal claims against them, rendering them entirely unaccountable for their unlawful actions.

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State v. Narcovich

Docket: 18-131

Opinion Date: February 12, 2021

Judge: Maureen McKenna Goldberg

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court vacated Defendant's conviction for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in physical injury, reckless driving resulting in physical injury, and violating a no-contact order, holding that the trial justice erred in instructing the jury, resulting in reversible error. Defendant's conviction arose from a bar fight and its aftermath, when Defendant drove his vehicle into two women and then fled the scene. Three counts arose from violations of a no-contact order. On appeal, Defendant argued, among other things, that the trial justice committed reversible error when he instructed the jury that it was entitled to consider whether he was intoxicated at the time of the incident. The Supreme Court agreed and remanded the case for a new trial, holding (1) the trial justice erred when he instructed the jury that it could consider Defendant's intoxication, and the error required reversal of Defendant's convictions; and (2) the trial justice erred in ruling that two separate counts of violating a no-contact order did not merge.