The legal battles involving the use of discrimination as a tool to confine or restrict certain speech or behavior is now several decades long. In 2023, Maryland added another twist when it reinterpreted the Maryland Fair Employment Act through an anti-discrimination lens to significantly limit the law’s religious exemption.
In short, the state now reads the law in a way that gives it the power to decide what a religious organization’s core ministry activities are and who qualifies to do those activities. The potential risk means churches might be required to hire workers who do not meet the churches’ standards of conduct and beliefs should the job description not pass the state’s narrow boundaries for “core ministry.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church did not want to wait for that moment and challenged the holding in a pre-enforcement action. A federal judge denied the motion for preliminary injunction and dismissed four of its seven constitutional complaints. There are problems with the state’s new views on church autonomy, ministerial exceptions, and free exercise. This case also invites a reexamination of Employment Division v. Smith.
The Center for Law & Religious Freedom filed an amicus brief supporting the church’s appeal to the Fourth Circuit.
