Washington defends religious hiring law before full Ninth Circuit

An 11-judge en banc Ninth Circuit panel reconsidered whether Washington's antidiscrimination law violates the First Amendment as applied to the Union Gospel Mission of Yakima, which sued after the law barred it from hiring only believers for nonministerial IT technician and operations assistant roles. A three-judge panel had sided with the church in January, prompting the state's rehearing request.

Washington's solicitor general argued the church seeks a rule letting religious employers discriminate for any position regardless of religious relevance, while the church's attorney countered that determining what's central to its mission is the church's call, not the court's. Judges from both the panel's conservative and liberal wings noted the state has never actually tried to enforce the law against the church and appeared to agree the positions might already be exempt, leading one judge to call the dispute 'befuddling.'

The panel, spanning appointees from Clinton through Trump, gave no timeline for a ruling.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.