A big win for religious liberty

In a huge win for faith-based organizations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed that churches and religious ministries have autonomy to hire only those who share their faith. Yakima Union Gospel Mission exists to advance the gospel through its social welfare work—yet Washington state insisted that the religious organization abandon its religious identity at the hiring desk. In Union Gospel Mission of Yakima v. Brown, the 9th Circuit correctly held that government cannot force a Christian ministry to hire employees who reject its religious beliefs.

Yakima Union Gospel Mission exists to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. It fulfills this mission by operating homeless shelters, health clinics, soup kitchens, and faith-based addiction recovery services. The ministry serves everyone regardless of background or belief. And Union Gospel’s religious beliefs guide everything it does. Indeed, the ministry accomplishes its religious mission through its employees. Union Gospel emphasizes that its employees are its “hands, feet, and mouthpiece.” They also create an internal “faith community”—providing “Christian fellowship, mentoring, and discipleship”—that facilitates Union Gospel’s outward ministry.

Because the mission of Union Gospel is unapologetically religious, so is its hiring. It believes that its mission to spread the gospel through its charitable work can be achieved only by those who “seek to advance the same goals with the same spirit.” Union Gospel thus employs only those who share and live out its Christian beliefs and practices. The State of Washington insisted that Union Gospel’s desire to hire only those who shared its faith is unlawful under state law. The State argued that the First Amendment’s religious liberty protections did not extend to religious hiring for non-ministerial positions.

A unanimous panel of the 9th Circuit disagreed. The court explained that the First Amendment’s ministerial exception does indeed bar the government from interfering in a ministry’s choice of clergy. The state does not get to dictate who preaches on a Sunday morning. But as the 9th Circuit explained, the First Amendment protects much more than the pulpit. The church autonomy doctrine protects religious organizations from government intrusion into internal decisions that affect faith and mission—whether or not the employee wears a clerical collar.

In protecting the ability of religious organizations to hire those who share and live out their faith, the 9th Circuit referenced the old adage “personnel is policy.” It explained that selecting the activities that further the organization’s religious mission and requiring that “only those committed to [its] mission should conduct them” is one way “a religious community defines itself.” Were a religious organization “forced to hire those who flout and disregard its religious beliefs,” it might forgo its ministry altogether. This makes sense. “To force religious organizations to hire messengers and other personnel who do not share their religious views would undermine not only the autonomy of many religious organizations but also their continued viability.”

As Justice Alito has written, the very existence of some ministries “is dedicated to the collective expression and propagation of shared religious ideals.” Thus “there can be no doubt that the messenger matters.” That helps explain why federal law has long protected the ability of religious organizations to consider faith in hiring.

The 9th Circuit made clear that the Constitution protects the ability of a religious organization to hire only co-religionists. That matters—not just for Yakima Union Gospel Mission, but for religious charities across the country. As Alliance Defending Freedom (where I work) attorney Jeremiah Galus put it:

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. The 9th Circuit correctly ruled that the First Amendment protects the mission’s freedom to hire fellow believers who share that calling.

The 9th Circuit got this one right. The First Amendment protects more than sermons. It protects the ability of religious organizations to hire those who live out their shared faith. Faith-based organizations provide a staggering share of social services, often reaching populations the government cannot or will not. They do so because of their religious conviction. Punish that conviction, and you get fewer ministries, less outreach, and a poorer civil society.