SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lawyers for a Christian homeless shelter were in federal appeals court July 19 to challenge a Washington state anti-discrimination law that would require the charity to hire LGBTQ+ people and others who don’t share its religious beliefs, including those on sexuality and marriage.
The Union Gospel Mission in Yakima, about 150 miles southeast of Seattle, is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revive a lawsuit dismissed by a lower court. The Alliance Defending Freedom is assisting the mission.
Washington’s anti-discrimination law prohibits employers with eight or more employees from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Religious organizations are exempt, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the exemption should apply only to ministerial positions.
The Union Gospel Mission of Yakima hires only fellow believers to advance its religious purpose and expects “employees to abstain from sexual immorality, including adultery, unmarried cohabitation and homosexual conduct,” according to court documents.
The Washington state attorney general’s office said the mission filed a preemptive and premature action, based on speculation that it might one day face enforcement action, and that it was not investigating the Union Gospel Mission.
But members of the three-judge appeals panel expressed skepticism of the state on Friday.
Two judges appointed by former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, both Republicans, urged Daniel Jeon, deputy attorney general, to swear that his office would not enforce the law against the charity.
Jeon said job descriptions and other information provided by the mission indicate that all employees are ministers to clients, donors and volunteers and therefore do not fall under the law. But he said he could not disavow enforcement of the law in the future if his office received further information. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is a Democrat and a gay rights advocate.
Ryan Tucker, ADF’s chief attorney, said the Union Gospel Mission of Yakima has about 150 employees, and CEO Mike Johnson has been unable to hire an IT consultant and an operations assistant for fear of being penalized. The mission operates a homeless shelter, drug treatment programs, meal services and medical clinics.
“There are a ton of other institutions in the state that are in jeopardy right now. And the attorney general has made it very clear, very clear, that he intends to enforce this law and that he will investigate,” Tucker said after the hearing.
Brionna Aho, a spokeswoman for Ferguson’s office, declined to comment last week and referred to their legal briefings. When the case was initially filed, Ferguson reiterated that his office was not investigating the mission and called ADF an “anti-LGBTQ+ law firm” willing to do anything to advance its “extreme theories in court.”
He added at the time: “My office respects the religious views of all Washingtonians and the constitutional rights afforded to religious institutions. As a person of faith, I share that view.”
U.S. District Judge Mary K. Dimke dismissed the case last year, also agreeing with state attorneys that the Yakima mission’s lawsuit was a barred appeal of another case decided by the Washington Supreme Court.
The current case stems from a 2017 lawsuit filed by Matt Woods, a bisexual professed Christian who was denied employment as an attorney at a legal aid clinic run by the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle. The state Supreme Court sent the case back to court to determine whether the role of legal aid attorney would fall under the ministerial exemption.
Woods said he dismissed the case because he got the ruling he sought and didn’t want to seek damages from a homeless shelter.
“I am confident that the trial court would have concluded that a position as an attorney at a legal aid clinic is not a ministerial position,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Woods decision, but Justice Samuel Alito said that “the day may soon come when we must decide whether the autonomy guaranteed by the First Amendment protects the freedom of religious organizations to hire fellow believers without recourse to state or judicial interference.”
A challenge to the law by Seattle Pacific University, a Christian college that prohibits employees from same-sex sexual relations and marriage, is pending in federal court.
From The Associated Press via Religion News Service. May not be republished.
