For years, 71Five Ministries received grants from the Oregan Department of Education to serve at-risk youth until an anonymous tip led officials to investigate 71Five’s hiring practices. The report revealed that the ministry requires its staff and volunteers to adhere to orthodox Christian beliefs, the same faith as 71Five itself. The state promptly disqualified them from further grants, and 71Five sued for preliminary injunctive relief.
Despite alleging violations of free exercise, church autonomy, and expressive association, 71Five lost at the district court, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Center for Law & Religious Freedom, partnering with BCLP Law, has now filed an amicus brief to support an en banc rehearing by the Ninth Circuit. There is more than injunctive relief at stake.
This case represents another in a long string of attempts to deny religious organizations rights based on their creed and conduct standards. Despite the recent win for World Vision, this case and another (Seventh-day Adventists) are facing similar reasoning—maintaining religious coherence as an organization is viewed as discriminatory and therefore disqualifying.
The brief calls for a reconsideration by a larger panel the holding that the religious autonomy doctrine cannot be used to obtain affirmative relief—that it can only be a defense against a discrimination claim, not a standalone basis for a court injunction to enforce it. At least three other circuits of the U.S. Courts of Appeals have concluded the opposite, so this case may attract the Supreme Court’s attention.
