In a unanimous ruling today (in Union Gospel Mission v. Brown), a Ninth Circuit panel delivered a sweeping victory for the religious liberty of religious organizations in hiring decisions. The panel ruled that the church-autonomy doctrine entitles religious organizations to prefer and hire co-religionists even for non-ministerial positions—for positions, that is, that fall outside the scope of the ministerial exception to employment-discrimination laws. A Christian ministry, the Union Gospel Mission, is therefore free to discriminate based on its religious beliefs in filling various positions that Union Gospel does not contend are ministerial, such as an IT technician and an administrative assistant. The panel enjoined the state of Washington from requiring the Union Gospel Mission to abide by a state law that would forbid employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The panel characterized its ruling as “narrow” in two respects. First, while the church-autonomy doctrine entitles Union Gospel to “decline to hire as non-ministerial employees those who do not share its religious beliefs about marriage and sexuality,” it “only protects Union Gospel’s non-ministerial hiring decisions based on religious beliefs.” The ministerial exception, by contrast, protects hiring decisions regarding ministerial employees on any ground. Second, the panel limited its ruling to “religious organizations like Union Gospel” and “do[es] not consider the scope of the doctrine on other types of entities run by religious institutions, such as businesses or hospitals.”
The exact scope of “religious organizations like Union Gospel” isn’t clear, but it would certainly seem to encompass religious schools. Thus, under the panel’s ruling, a religious school will have broad freedom to hire its teachers and other employees irrespective whether they qualify as ministers under the ministerial exception.
Judge Patrick Bumatay authored the opinion, which Judge Daniel Bress and Judge Johnnie Rawlinson joined. Bumatay and Bress were appointed by Donald Trump, and Rawlinson by Bill Clinton.