Ninth Circuit Said Oregon Treated Youth Ministry WORSE Than Secular Groups — Orders State to Restore Grant Funding

Oregon revoked funding for a youth ministry in 2023 because the group requires employees and volunteers to share in its mission to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and sign a statement of faith.

According to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Youth 71Five Ministries received funds from the biennial Youth Community Investment Grants program from 2017 to 2023. The state claimed that a new rule bars state grant applicants from discriminating on the basis of religion.

Bureaucrats believe that when religious ministries hire religious employees, they discriminate based on religion against other individuals.

The state apparently doesn’t understand (or believe) that religious ministries have the freedom to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that religious organizations can’t be denied a public benefit simply for being religious, and these organizations may hire employees who share the faith.

71Five Ministries filed a lawsuit in March, but a lower court dismissed the case. The organization appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit last Friday granted 71Five Ministries’s request that the state restore funding while the lawsuit is pending.

The court cited (PDF) the Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023): “Anti-discrimination laws and policies serve undeniably admirable goals, but when those goals collide with the protections of the Constitution, they must yield—no matter how well-intentioned.”

The Ninth Circuit contended that Oregon has treated comparable secular groups more favorably than 71Five Ministries. The Free Exercise Clause bars the government from treating religious groups worse than secular ones, the court said, “but Oregon has apparently done just that in selectively enforcing” the non-discrimination rule.

The Ninth Circuit’s order is effective immediately.

“71Five provides vital support and care to anyone who needs it, but Oregon officials are punishing it because it’s a Christian ministry that reasonably asks volunteers and staff to agree to Christian beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus. “By stripping 71Five of its funding, Oregon put religious ministries to an impossible choice: hire those who reject your beliefs to receive funding that everyone else can access or go without the funding. This is a critical first step toward restoring the ministry’s constitutionally protected freedoms.”

In 303 Creative, the high court upheld Christian web designer Lorie Smith’s right not to create expressive designs speaking messages that violate her religious beliefs. Smith did not want to use her artistic talents to provide services for homosexual “weddings.” She filed a pre-enforcement lawsuit against the state of Colorado.

Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

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