Michigan Catholic parish urges federal court to allow morality test for employees
A Catholic Church in Michigan is asking a federal appeals court to revive its lawsuit against the state over a policy that could bar the parish from hiring only employees who agree to abide by Catholic moral teaching.
St. Joseph Catholic Church and a school in St. Johns, Michigan, filed the appeal with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday after a district court dismissed the case. The parish is suing the state over a law that could be used to ban the school from adhering to Catholic teaching on gender and sexuality by enforcing nondiscrimination rules.
"Thanks to a change in Michigan law, all of St. Joseph’s employment, educational, and publicly open activities are subject to liability whenever they uphold the Catholic understanding of human sexuality, gender, or marriage," the church said in its appeal.
The focus is on a state law passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) earlier this year. The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and does not allow for any form of religious exemption.
During the passage of the bill, Democratic state Sen. Jeff Irwin said that a religious exemption amounted to "a license to discriminate" and helped lead the charge to keep an exemption out of the law. Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is named as a defendant in the case, previously said that people who invoke religious exemptions "are not religious heroes, they are bigots."
The parish filed its lawsuit in a bid to block the law before it could be enforced, but a district court dismissed the case in August. The parish is represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and said that without a religious exemption, it would be forced to violate Catholic teaching on topics such as marriage and sexuality because the Catholic Church teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman and that there are immutable distinctions between the two sexes.
The parish contends that the state seeks to force it to allow biological males in girls bathrooms and vice versa, use pronouns that do not correspond with biological sex, and hire employees at its school and parish that do not uphold or live according to Catholic moral teaching.
In its filing, the parish notes that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the ability of religious institutions to hire employees who adhere to their religious and moral principles and to fire those who violate them.
"Constitutional rights don’t come with permission slips. Michigan cannot tell St. Joseph and every other religious organization in the state that they are breaking the law by staying true to their religious beliefs,” William Haun, a senior counsel for the Becket Fund, said in a press release. “We are asking the court to step in and ensure that religious groups across the state can live out their faith and not be sued simply because they open their doors to everyone.”
