RALEIGH, N.C. — A Catholic school in North Carolina had the right to fire a gay teacher who announced his marriage on social media a decade ago, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, reversing a judge’s earlier decision.

A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond reversed a 2021 ruling that Charlotte Catholic High School and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte violated Lonnie Billard’s federal employment protections against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The school said Billard wasn’t invited back as a substitute teacher because of his “advocacy in favor of a position that is opposed to what the church teaches about marriage,” a court document said.

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn determined Billard — a full-time teacher for a decade until 2012 — was a lay employee for the limited purpose of teaching secular classes. Cogburn said a trial would still have to be held to determine appropriate relief for him. A 2020 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court declared Title VII also protected workers who were fired for being gay or transgender.

But Circuit Judge Pamela Harris, writing Wednesday’s prevailing opinion, said Billard fell under a “ministerial exception” to Title VII that courts have derived from the First Amendment that protects religious institutions in how they treat employees “who perform tasks so central to their religious missions — even if the tasks themselves do not advertise their religious nature.”

That included Billard because Charlotte Catholic expected instructors to integrate faith throughout the curriculum, Harris wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union and a Charlotte law firm that helped Billard file his lawsuit lamented Wednesday’s reversal as “a heartbreaking decision for our client who wanted nothing more than the freedom to perform his duties as an educator without hiding who he is or who he loves.”

The decision threatens the rights of LGBTQ+ workers “by widening the loopholes employers may use to fire people like Mr. Billard for openly discriminatory reasons,” the joint statement read.

An attorney for a group that defended the Charlotte diocese called the decision “a victory for people of all faiths who cherish the freedom to pass on their faith to the next generation.”