“The First Amendment gives ‘special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations’ to operate according to their faith without government interference,” wrote Justice Alito.
QUICK FACTS:
- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider whether religious organizations are shielded from discrimination claims when they turn away applicants for secular jobs who do not share their religious views, Reuters reports.
- Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission was denied by the Supreme Court a review of a ruling from Washington state’s highest court which had said a bisexual man could sue the organization for sexual discrimination after he was turned down for a staff attorney position.
- The lawyer, Matthew Woods, had previously volunteered at the Christian nonprofit mission and then applied for the position in 2016 in order to protest its policy, which required staff to refrain from homosexual behavior.
- The justices’ decision not to review the lower court decision means the lawsuit can move forward.
- Justice Samuel Alito wrote an opinion indicating that the conservative wing might be eager to take it up in the future.
- The mission’s lawyer, John Bursch of Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said he was pleased that Alito had left the door open for the court to address the issue in the future.
- “Courts have consistently recognized that a religious organization’s purpose will be undermined if the government forces it to hire those who do not share and live out the group’s beliefs,” Bursch said in an emailed statement, according to the The Hill.
- Denise Diskin, Woods’s attorney, vowed on Monday to continue the legal challenge in the hopes of fighting the mission’s hiring practices.
- “Discrimination does not belong in social services, and we are excited to begin the process of confirming that LGBTQ+ people are just as qualified as anyone else to provide support and help to vulnerable people in their communities,” Diskin said in a statement.
WHAT ALITO WROTE:
- “The First Amendment gives ‘special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations’ to operate according to their faith without government interference,” Alito wrote in his opinion, which was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. “In certain contexts, this autonomy requires courts to ‘stay out of employment disputes involving those holding certain important positions with churches and other religious institutions.'”
- “Consistent with this constitutional principle, Congress has long exempted religious employers from federal employment laws that would otherwise interfere with their ability ‘to define and carry out the religious missions’ by imposing ‘potential liability’ for hiring practices that favor co-religionists.”
BACKGROUND:
- The 6-3 conservative Supreme Court has been interested in taking on a variety of religious liberty cases, and will hear cases this term on a web designer who doesn’t want to design websites for same-sex marriages and a football coach who was fired for praying on the football team, Forbes reports.
- The court also ruled last term that a religious adoption agency in Philadelphia could refuse same-sex foster parents.
- Alito and Thomas are considered to be two of the court’s most conservative justices, and the justices have also issued other controversial opinions, like that the court should revisit its precedent in legalizing same-sex marriage, Forbes also notes.
