‘A tremendous victory for religious freedom’

Bob Unruh
WND News Center

In what is being described as “a tremendous victory for religious freedom,” a federal court has ruled that a Christian-owned company can choose to hire employees based on the owner’s beliefs.

That means it is exempt from federal discrimination requirements banning decisions based on someone’s choice of an alternative sexual lifestyles.

A report from Liberty Counsel says it is a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that said, unanimously, in Braidwood Management v. EEOC, that the Religious Freedom Restoration of Act protects not just churches, but private entities, too.

The decision means the company is protected from having to employ “someone who does not share the same beliefs or whose conduct does not align with the company’s views,” Liberty Counsel reported.

“The RFRA prevents the federal government from enforcing otherwise neutral laws that burden a person’s free exercise of religion. In this case, the RFRA protects a Christian business from having to employ homosexual or gender-dysphoric employees who are incompatible with the company’s biblical views on sexuality and marriage,” the legal team explained.

This case involved Braidwood, which operates in Texas “under Christian beliefs and doctrine, which includes ‘marriage is between one man and one woman.'”

“The company, which will not hire people engaged in behavior that is ‘sexually immoral or gender non-conforming,’ brought the case against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,” the report said.

That federal bureaucracy “claims that bias against LGBT workers is a form of unlawful sex discrimination,” Liberty Counsel reported.

It was the Supreme Court that banned “discrimination” against a person over being gay or transgender, but Justice Neil Gorsuch said in that very case employers who have religious objections to employing LGBT people could possibly raise those claims in their specific cases.

Under that, Braidwood sought a court-ordered exemption to protect it, under the RFRA, from any EEOC enforcement that would prevent it from operating its business according to its biblical views.

The court ruling said the RFRA “requires that Braidwood, on an individual level, be exempted from Title VII because compliance with Title VII post-Bostock would substantially burden its ability to operate per its religious beliefs about homosexual and transgender conduct.”

The ruling found that as Braidwood maintains biblical beliefs, “the EEOC guidance almost assuredly burdens the exercise of Braidwood’s religious practice.”

The ruling cited the fault with the federal law, as the company could violate the law – or violate its convictions.

“Being forced to employ someone to represent the company who behaves in a manner directly violative of the company’s convictions is a substantial burden and inhibits the practice of Braidwood’s beliefs…That is precisely what RFRA is designed to prevent,” the court said.

Liberty Counsel chief Mat Staver said it was a “tremendous victory for religious freedom.”

“America was founded on religious principles, and they are not just set aside during business hours. Businesses must remain a free space for employers to operate in a manner consistent with their faith and convictions. This ruling confirms the broad protection the law gives religious businesses to employ people with aligned beliefs and conduct,” he said.