Ministry can’t be forced to hire non-Christian employees: court

A federal court has sided with a Christian ministry seeking to ensure it has the right to hire only employees who agree to abide by its religious beliefs, ordering the state of Washington not to enforce a nondiscrimination law against the organization. 

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion Tuesday, ruling that Union Gospel Mission of Yakima has the right to hire employees who align with the organization’s religious beliefs. 

The Christian ministry sued the state’s attorney general and the Washington State Human Rights Commission, alleging that the Washington Law Against Discrimination violates the organization’s rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The law prohibits employment discrimination on a variety of grounds, including sexual orientation and gender identity. Union Gospel expressed concern that it could face litigation because of its requirement that employees agree with and adhere to Christian beliefs and practices, including “abstaining from any sexual conduct outside of biblical marriage between one man and one woman.” 

The court’s ruling prevents state officials from enforcing the law against Union Gospel but only as it pertains to hiring employees who share its religious beliefs and values. All other aspects of the law still apply to the organization. 

The conservative nonprofit legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Union Gospel in its litigation, reacted favorably to the ruling in a statement published Tuesday. 

“Religious organizations shouldn’t be punished for exercising their constitutionally protected freedom to hire employees who are aligned with and live out their shared religious beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus. 

“Yakima Union Gospel Mission exists to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ through its homeless shelter, addiction-recovery programs, outreach efforts, meal services, and health clinics,” he added. “The 9th Circuit correctly ruled that the First Amendment protects the mission’s freedom to hire fellow believers who share that calling.”

Tuesday’s ruling follows years of litigation dating back to 2023. While the district court initially dismissed the case, it later granted Union Gospel’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law against the organization. The state appealed, and the 9th Circuit’s rejection of the appeal, upholding the lower court decision, marks the most recent development in the case. 

Union Gospel brought the litigation over concerns about the Washington Supreme Court’s interpretation of the exemption for religious organizations, which it held applied only to “ministers,” meaning the ministry must abide by the nondiscrimination law’s mandates when hiring non-ministerial employees. At the time the litigation began, Union Gospel was seeking to fill more than 50 non-ministerial positions. 

The 9th Circuit cited the “Church Autonomy Doctrine” when ruling in favor of Union Gospel. The federal court stated that decades of jurisprudence have determined that “The First and Fourteenth Amendments permit hierarchical religious organizations to establish their own rules and regulations for internal discipline and government” and “the Constitution requires that civil courts accept their decisions as binding upon them.” 

“If a religious organization’s hiring of co-religionists for non-ministerial positions rests on its sincerely held religious beliefs, then the church autonomy doctrine forbids government interference with that hiring decision,” Tuesday’s opinion stated.