The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday vacated a three-judge panel’s decision holding that a Washington state law’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation did not apply to a religious ministry.
The 9th Circuit also said it would rehear the case, Union Gospel Mission of Yakima Washington v. Brown, en banc. Union Gospel Mission of Yakima did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The panel’s January decision upheld a lower court’s injunction that blocked state regulators from enforcing the Washington Law Against Discrimination against Union Gospel. The ministry maintained a preference for hiring co-religionists for nonministerial roles while declining to hire those who do not share its religious beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
In the decision, the panel reasoned that Union Gospel would likely succeed on the merits of its claim that Washington’s law infringed upon the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. This is because the “internal management decisions” of a religious organization — including the hiring of employees for nonministerial roles — may be considered a matter of religious faith and doctrine, the panel said.
Three circuit judges dissented from the grant of rehearing en banc, including Judge Patrick Bumatay, who authored the panel opinion. In his dissent, Bumatay wrote that the 9th Circuit “has relegated religious liberty to a second-class right,” and the decision to vacate and grant rehearing represented the court continuing down a “disturbing path.”
“In what is likely a foregone conclusion, our court steps toward endorsing the view that States can force a religious organization to hire individuals who openly flout its religious beliefs and teachings,” Bumatay said. “As a matter of constitutional first principles and precedent, that’s wrong.”
Both the state and employers have previously clashed over the applicability of Washington’s nondiscrimination laws to religious hiring requirements.
In 2022, for instance, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Washington Supreme Court decision that declined to apply a religious exemption to a Christian employer that refused to hire a bisexual job applicant. Justice Samuel Alito authored a statement, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, that concurred in the denial of certiorari but nonetheless said that such a dispute may warrant future review by the high court.
A separate case brought by Seattle Pacific University, a Christian institution, alleged that Washington’s attorney general unlawfully investigated its employment practices, including a requirement that faculty and staff abide by religious teachings on sexuality and marriage. In 2024, the 9th Circuit affirmed and reversed in part a district court’s decision dismissing the complaint. It held that the university’s pre-enforcement injury claims had standing but that the attorney general’s request for documents and inquiry into the ministerial status of employees was lawful.
