Appeals Court Revives Christian Case Against Washington State Law

Washington state Attorney General Robert Ferguson in a file image. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

A Christian group in Washington state has shown it’s being injured by a state bias law, a federal appeals court ruled on Aug. 12, reversing a lower court decision and reviving the group’s case against state officials.

The Union Gospel Mission of Yakima, Washington, sued over the Washington Law Against Discrimination, which bars employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation. The group said the law is unconstitutional and that it is being affected by the law because it distributes a form for employees to sign that agrees to adherence to a Christian lifestyle and beliefs, including only engaging in sexual conduct in a marriage between a man and a woman.

Due to the threat of prosecution, the group stopped listing job openings, paused hiring, and decided not to publish requirements for its employees online, the group said in its suit. That means the law “has thus chilled the mission’s religious exercise and speech, and is causing irreparable harm every single day the mission cannot express its beliefs and hire coreligionists who live them out.”

U.S. District Judge Mary K. Dimke in 2023 rejected the suit, finding that the case was outside of her jurisdiction because it sought a review of precedent established by the Washington Supreme Court, which has ruled that a Christian group violated the law when it decided not to hire a man who was in a gay relationship.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel, though, said on Monday that Dimke should not have turned away the case.

The Union Gospel Mission has shown that it is being injured by the law by having to self-censor and there is a possibility state officials will prosecute the group if it continues to hire based on the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, the panel said.

That’s based in part on how state officials have repeatedly refused to commit to not enforcing the law against the mission, the judges said.

The decision overturned Dimke’s ruling with regard to the dismissal of the case and her rejection of the mission’s request for a preliminary injunction as moot.

The panel remanded the case to the district judge to reconsider based on ripeness. She should think about entering a preliminary injunction, the judges directed.

The panel consisted of U.S. Circuit Judges Milan D. Smith Jr., Mark J. Bennett, and Anthony D. Johnstone.

A spokesperson for Washington state Attorney General Robert Ferguson did not respond to a request for comment.

Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Ryan Tucker, who is representing the mission, said in a statement that the appeals court “rightly overturned the lower court’s dismissal, permitting the ministry to pursue protection for its constitutional rights in federal court.”