Alabama Joins Multistate Fight to Protect Religious Organizations’ Rights
21 State coalition is challenging a Maryland decision on the basis that it undermines their freedom of religion
Alabama has joined a coalition of 21 States in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, according to a statement from the Alabama Attorney General’s office. The brief challenges a Maryland Supreme Court decision that limits how religious organizations define their own missions and employment policies without outside interference.
The issue stems from a Maryland law that bans employment discrimination but includes a religious-organization exemption. Until recently, that exemption allowed religious groups to make employment decisions based on their religious missions. However, the Maryland Supreme Court narrowed that exemption, saying it applies only to employees who “directly further” an organization’s “core mission.”
That change gives secular courts the power to decide what counts as a church or synagogue’s “core mission,” and which staff are deemed essential to it. According to Marshall, that undermines the freedom of religious groups themselves to determine their faith-based goals.
“Courts have no business telling a church what its ‘core mission’ is. That role belongs to the religious community alone, as the Founders understood when they enshrined religious liberty in the Constitution. Our coalition will continue to stand against every encroachment on this fundamental freedom, and I am confident the court will correct the lower court’s deeply misguided ruling,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
The case was brought by the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists and Adventist Risk Management, Inc. These organizations require all their employees to be Church members in good standing. They argue that every employee contributes to advancing the Church’s mission. The new Maryland rule, they say, would allow courts to decide which employees are “close enough” to the mission to deserve the religious exemption.
The brief argues that the Maryland decision violates the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses — both the Free Exercise Clause, which protects religious groups’ ability to shape doctrine and mission, and the Establishment Clause, which forbids government interference in matters of faith. It also warns that even just the threat of lawsuits can discourage religious organizations from acting on their beliefs.
Attorney General Marshall is joined by the Attorneys General of Virginia (who is leading the coalition), Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia in filing the brief.
The brief may be read HERE.
