https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/9th-circuit-ruling-world-vision-20803414.php
9th Circuit sides with religious group that rescinded job offer over worker's same-sex spouse
An international religious ministry that offered a woman a job as a customer-service representative was entitled to withdraw that offer after learning she was married to another woman, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, citing the Supreme Court's broad "ministerial exception" from civil rights laws.
Although the low-paying position Aubry McMahon sought with World Vision in Washington state involved only contact with donors and members of the public and would not have required her to take part in worship services, those contacts can be considered "key religious functions central to World Vision's mission," said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Unlike secretaries, accountants or janitors that perform in-house work, customer-service representatives are "responsible for effectively communicating World Vision's involvement in ministries and projects around the world," Judge Richard Tallman wrote in a 3-0 ruling that reversed a federal judge's decision in McMahon's favor.
Their "engagement of donors," which can include joining them in prayer, "is a form of ministry," Tallman said.
The ruling was based on the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in the Hosanna-Tabor case in 2012 that allowed religious organizations to classify some of their non-clergy employees - in that case, a teacher at a religious school - as "ministers" who can be fired because of their race, sex, sexual orientation or other grounds normally forbidden by civil rights laws.
Federal courts have applied that ruling to a variety of jobs at religiously affiliated institutions such as World Vision, a Christian ministry that trains pastors to provide spiritual and economic services to needy children around the world.
The boundaries of the ruling remain hotly contested and drew arguments in Tuesday's case from California and 18 other states siding with McMahon, 17 states supporting World Vision, and religious and civil rights organizations on both sides.
The ministry's "radical vision" of religious exemptions from discrimination laws "would wreak havoc on states' ability to ensure that employment opportunities remain open to all," lawyers from the Massachusetts attorney general's office wrote in a filing joined by California.
Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Tuesday's ruling was "part of a dangerous trend: A network of conservative legal activists and religious organizations is urging courts to expand a narrow, commonsense rule - meant to allow houses of worship to select clergy according to their faith traditions - into a broad license to discriminate and circumvent civil rights laws."But World Vision's attorney, Daniel Blomberg of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told the court that the ministry sought only to ensure "that those who speak on its behalf faithfully reflect the view of marriage that Christianity has taught for millennia."
The ruling reinforces "the common sense idea that religious ministries can expect their staff to live what they say they believe," said attorney Steve McFarland of the Christian Legal Society, who filed arguments on behalf of conservative religious organizations and educators.
Some of those groups have urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its 2015 ruling that established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, two years after federal courts declared those rights in California in a separate case.
McMahon did not discuss her marital status before being offered the customer-service job, paying $13 to $15 an hour, in January 2021. Later the same day, she told World Vision that she and her wife were expecting a child in March, and asked if she could take any time off after giving birth. After conducting "internal discussions" about its policies, the court said, the ministry withdrew the job offer three days later.
U.S. District Judge James Robart of Seattle ruled that World Vision had illegally discriminated against McMahon, finding that the job duties were largely secular, like calling donors, describing the ministry's work and keeping statistics, and did not involve any significant religious duties. But the appeals court said World Vision considers those employees to be the ministry's "voice" to the world.
Customer-service representatives "minister to donors through prayer and routinely pray with donors about their needs and the needs of the children they sponsor," wrote Tallman, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.
He was joined by Judges Ronald Gould, another Clinton appointee, and Morgan Christen, appointed by President Barack Obama. Robart, whose ruling they reversed, was appointed by President George W. Bush. President Donald Trump derided Robart as a "so-called judge" in 2017 after striking down Trump's first version of a ban on U.S. travel from a group of mostly Muslim nations, a ruling that was upheld on appeal.
피해를 주장하는 이 전직 여성 근로자 에바 아이디 카르도자는 지난 7월7일 LA 카운티 수피리어 법원에 H 마트 로지스틱스(H Mart Logistics, Inc.), 인력파견업체 ‘셀렉티브 퍼스넬'(Selective Personnel Inc.)와 S.P.I. 44, 그리고 H마트 LA 물류창고의 현장 관리자였던 클라우디오 피스칼 등을 상대로 소송을 제기했다.
