ATLANTA—A teacher at a Christian school, who was fired after she told the administration she had become pregnant before her marriage, has presented sufficient evidence to establish she may have been terminated because of her pregnancy, and not the premarital sex, says an appellate court.

According to Wednesday's ruling in Jarretta P. Hamilton vs. Southland Christian School Inc., Ms. Hamilton, who began teaching at the St. Cloud, Fla.-based school in January 2008, conceived a child with her then-fiancé in January 2009. The couple got married the next month.

After she told Southland's administrator and assistant administer, John and Julie Ennis, what happened, she was fired four days later “purportedly because she had sinned by engaging in premarital sex and, as John Ennis put it, ‘there are consequences for disobeying the word of God,'” said the ruling.

Ms. Hamilton sued for pregnancy discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A lower court dismissed the claim.

In its ruling, a three-judge appellate panel said the issue is whether the lower court erred in its conclusion Southland was entitled to summary judgment “on the ground that Hamilton had not established a prima facie case that she was fired because of her pregnancy instead of her premarital sex.

“The reason the difference matters is that Title VII does not protect any right to engage in premarital sex, but as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, Title VII does,” said the court.

“Hamilton presented evidence that, in making the decision to fire her, Southland was more concerned about her pregnancy and her request to take maternity leave than about her admission that she had premarital sex,” said the unanimous panel.

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Among other evidence discussed in the ruling, the court said “she testified at deposition that, after she told the Ennises about her pregnancy, but before she told them she had conceived before getting married, John Ennis, put his head back and he said, “We feared something like this would happen.”'

The case was remanded for further proceedings.

The appellate court said in its ruling that Southland had not “properly presented” as an argument in its brief the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelic Lutheran Church and School vs. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission et al., in which the court held a religious school can claim a “ministerial exception” to a discrimination charge under the Americans with Disabilities Act for a teacher who also taught secular subjects.

This ruling was referred to in a statement by Southland’s attorney, David Gibbs, of the Seminole, Fla.-based Gibbs Law Firm P.A. He said Southland “believes that it is protected under the First Amendment to hire and fire its ministerial employees according to its sincerely held religious beliefs.

“Our office plans to vigorously defend the religious rights of our client before the federal district court as directed by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. As written by Chief Justice Roberts in the Supreme Court’s 2012 Hosanna-Tabor decision, ‘the establishment clause prevents the government from appointing ministers, and the free exercise clause prevents it from interfering with the freedom of religious groups to select their own.’

“We believe that ultimately the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor will control the outcome, but the 11th Circuit did not rule on that issue at this time. We remain confident that the constitutional rights of Southland Christian School will be protected by the federal district court consistent with Hosanna-Tabor.”