There are a number of churches in the United States that operate universities, and I understand that these universities are legally permitted to give preference to members of the church when hiring for academic and other positions, or even to entirely exclude non-members from the hiring process.

My question is whether it is legally permissible for these universities to terminate an existing employee, whom they had hired already knowing that the employee was not a member of the church, for the sole reason that the employee is not a member of the church.

For example, Brigham Young University is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Suppose that the University wants to hire a new professor of mathematics, but can't find any qualified LDS candidates for the position, and so gives the job to Alice, knowing full well that she is an atheist. Some time into Alice's contract, the university finds Bob, who has similar qualifications as Alice but is an LDS member.

Could the university terminate Alice's contract on purely religious grounds in order to give her professorship to Bob?  (That is, assume that there exist no other grounds on which the university could justify a dismissal—i.e., Alice has been maintaining satisfactory job performance, has not been violating the school's honour code, etc.)

There are a number of churches in the United States that operate universities, and I understand that these universities are legally permitted to give preference to members of the church when hiring for academic and other positions, or even to entirely exclude non-members from the hiring process.

My question is whether it is legally permissible for these universities to terminate an existing employee, whom they had hired already knowing that the employee was not a member of the church, for the sole reason that the employee is not a member of the church.

For example, Brigham Young University is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Suppose that the University wants to hire a new professor of mathematics but can't find any qualified LDS candidates for the position, and so gives the job to Alice, knowing full well that she is an atheist. Some time into Alice's contract, the university finds Bob, who has similar qualifications as Alice but is an LDS member.

Could the university terminate Alice's contract on purely religious grounds in order to give her professorship to Bob? (That is, assume that there exist no other grounds on which the university could justify a dismissal—i.e., Alice has been maintaining satisfactory job performance, has not been violating the school's honour code, etc.)

There are a number of churches in the United States that operate universities, and I understand that these universities are legally permitted to give preference to members of the church when hiring for academic and other positions, or even to entirely exclude non-members from the hiring process.

My question is whether it is legally permissible for these universities to terminate an existing employee, whom they had hired already knowing that the employee was not a member of the church, for the sole reason that the employee is not a member of the church.

For example, Brigham Young University is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). The University wants to hire a new professor of mathematics, but can't find any qualified LDS candidates for the position, and so gives the job to Alice, knowing full well that she is an atheist. Some time into Alice's contract, the university finds Bob, who has similar qualifications as Alice but is an LDS member. Could the university terminate Alice's contract on purely religious grounds in order to give her professorship to Bob? (That is, assume that there exist no other grounds on which the university could justify a dismissal—i.e., Alice has been maintaining satisfactory job performance, has not been violating the school's honour code, etc.)

There are a number of churches in the United States that operate universities, and I understand that these universities are legally permitted to give preference to members of the church when hiring for academic and other positions, or even to entirely exclude non-members from the hiring process.

My question is whether it is legally permissible for these universities to terminate an existing employee, whom they had hired already knowing that the employee was not a member of the church, for the sole reason that the employee is not a member of the church.

For example, Brigham Young University is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Suppose that the University wants to hire a new professor of mathematics, but can't find any qualified LDS candidates for the position, and so gives the job to Alice, knowing full well that she is an atheist. Some time into Alice's contract, the university finds Bob, who has similar qualifications as Alice but is an LDS member. 

Could the university terminate Alice's contract on purely religious grounds in order to give her professorship to Bob? (That is, assume that there exist no other grounds on which the university could justify a dismissal—i.e., Alice has been maintaining satisfactory job performance, has not been violating the school's honour code, etc.)