Appeals court hears Christian homeless shelter's challenge to Washington anti-discrimination law

SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for a Christian homeless shelter were in a federal appeals court Friday to challenge a Washington state anti-discrimination law that would require the charity to hire LGBTQ+ people and others who do not share its religious beliefs, including those on sexuality and marriage.

Union Gospel Mission in Yakima, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) 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, a global legal organization, is assisting the mission.

Washington's Law Against Discrimination prohibits employers with at least eight employees from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Religious organizations are exempt, but the state's Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the exemption should only apply to ministerial positions.

Yakima's Union Gospel Mission hires only co-religionists to advance its religious purpose and expects “employees to abstain from sexual immorality, including adultery, nonmarried cohabitation, and homosexual conduct,” according to court documents.

The Washington state attorney general's office said the mission sued preemptively and prematurely, based on speculation that it might be subject to enforcement one day, and that it is not investigating the Union Gospel Mission.

But members of the three-judge appellate panel on Friday expressed skepticism with the state.

Two judges nominated by former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, both Republicans, pressed Daniel Jeon, an assistant attorney general, to swear his office would not enforce the law against the charity.

Jeon said job descriptions and other information provided by the mission state that all staff employees are ministers to clients, donors and volunteers, and so do not fall under the law. But he said he could not disavow enforcement in the future if his office received other information. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is a Democrat and a champion of gay rights.

Ryan Tucker, senior counsel with the alliance, said Yakima's Union Gospel Mission has about 150 employees and CEO Mike Johnson has been unable to hire an IT consultant and operations assistant for fear of being penalized. The mission operates a homeless shelter, addiction-recovery programs, meal services, and medical clinics.

“There are a ton of other institutions in the state that are in harm’s way now. And the attorney general said very clearly, very clearly that he intends to enforce this law and will investigate,” Tucker said after the hearing.

Brionna Aho, a spokesperson for Ferguson's office, declined to comment Friday and referred back to their legal briefings. When the case was initially filed, Ferguson reiterated that his office was not investigating the mission and he called the alliance an “anti-LGBTQ+ law firm” desperate to push 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 attorneys for the state that the lawsuit filed by Yakima’s mission was a prohibited appeal of another case decided by the Washington Supreme Court.

The current case arises out of a 2017 lawsuit filed by Matt Woods, a bisexual Christian man who was denied a job as an attorney at a legal aid clinic operated by the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle. The state Supreme Court sent the case back to trial to determine if the role of legal aid attorney would fall under the ministerial exemption.

Woods said he dismissed the case because he had gotten the ruling he sought and did not want to pursue monetary damages from a homeless shelter.

“I’m confident that the trial court would have found that a staff attorney position with a legal aid clinic is not a ministerial position,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 denied review of the Woods decision, but Justice Samuel Alito said “the day may soon come when we must decide whether the autonomy guaranteed by the First Amendment protects religious organizations’ freedom to hire co-religionists without state or judicial interference.”

A challenge to the law by Seattle Pacific University, a Christian university that prohibits employees from same-sex intercourse and marriage, is pending in federal court.