Reaching Souls International v. Azar
Evangelical ministries challenge a federal mandate
In 2013, an orphan care ministry, a Christian college, and a 100-year-old Baptist ministry went to court to challenge the HHS mandate, which forced them to violate their beliefs or pay crippling IRS fines. The mandate required employers to provide services like the week-after pill in their health insurance plans but did not accommodate religious ministries like Reaching Souls International, Truett-McConnell College, and GuideStone Financial Resources.
Reaching Souls International is a nonprofit evangelistic ministry that has preached the Gospel to over 20 million people and rescued hundreds of orphans in Africa, India, and Cuba by placing them into loving homes. If Reaching Souls does not comply with the government’s mandate, it will face each year in IRS fines.
Truett-McConnell College is a Georgia Baptist college committed to training students to share the Gospel by providing a biblically-centered education. If Truett-McConnell does not comply with the mandate, it will face millions of dollars each year in IRS fines.
GuideStone Financial Resources has been the benefits arm of the Southern Baptist Convention for over 100 years and provides retirement and health benefits to thousands of Southern Baptist churches and evangelical ministries like Reaching Souls and Truett-McConnell College.
Defending their religious mission and beliefs
These evangelical ministries simply could not comply with the mandate to provide free access to abortion-inducing drugs and devices through the GuideStone health plan because doing so would violate their Christian beliefs about the sanctity of human life. While the government exempted churches and church-controlled ministries from the mandate, it refused to exempt religious ministries like Reaching Souls and Truett-McConnell College.
Faced with no choice but to defend their beliefs, the ministries filed suit in October 2013, representing over 187 ministries that both relied on GuideStone for health benefits and faced massive IRS fines for refusing to violate their beliefs.
In December 2013, their case became the first class-action suit to win relief from the government’s HHS mandate. But on July 14, 2015, the Tenth Circuit reversed the district court decision and ruled against the evangelical ministries. On July 23, 2015, GuideStone, Reaching Souls, and Truett-McConnell appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court and a new federal rule protect ministries
Reaching Souls, Truett-McConnell, and GuideStone’s fight brought them all the way to the Supreme Court, which on November 6, 2015 agreed to hear their case along with several other religious ministries. The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the landmark case, Zubik v. Burwell. Zubik granted a victory to religious non-profits by directing the government to find another way to achieve its goals without violating religious liberty. Because of that ruling, the Tenth Circuit threw out its previous ruling against Reaching Souls, Truett-McConnell, and GuideStone, instead ordering the ministries and the government to address possible alternatives to the mandate.
On October 6, 2017, the government issued a new rule with a broader religious exemption. On November 7, 2018, the federal government issued a final rule protecting religious ministries like Reaching Souls while offering alternative means for women to obtain free contraception.
Becket and Locke Lord LLP represented Reaching Souls, Truett-McConnell, and GuideStone in their fight for religious freedom. This was the second class action filed challenging the administration’s mandate; the first was filed by Becket and Locke Lord LLP on behalf of the Little Sisters of the Poor and hundreds of Catholic ministries participating in the Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust, a national plan for Catholic employers. Becket also represented Eternal Word Television Network, Houston Baptist University, and others in similar lawsuits against the HHS mandate.
Importance to religious liberty:
- HHS Mandate cases: Winning the HHS mandate cases sets an important precedent, confirming that the government cannot unnecessarily force religious people to violate their beliefs.
- Religious communities: Religious communities have the right to build and lead their ministries according to their beliefs free from governmental discrimination.
- Individual freedom: Religious individuals and organizations are free to follow their faith in all aspects of their lives, including in the workplace.
Oliver v. Hofmeister
A program to give children with learning disabilities better opportunities
In 2010, the State of Oklahoma enacted the Lindsey Nicole Scholarship Program for Children with Disabilities to give students with learning disabilities access to private education by granting scholarships based on the cost of their public education. The program allowed students to attend a school that could help them with their specific learning disabilities. The vast majority of the state’s 541 school districts immediately complied with the law by issuing scholarship checks to eligible students. But four school districts decided that complying with the law would somehow violate the state’s Blaine Amendment, an archaic provision in the state constitution that targets “sectarian” groups.
The U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged that these provisions were “born of bigotry” in an era of widespread anti-Catholicism. Yet these four districts unilaterally asserted the Oklahoma Blaine Amendment to deny students the funds, arguing that it might aid religiously-affiliated schools. Conveniently, this allowed those school districts to keep the funds for themselves. After Becket sued to defend the students’ rights, the legislature learned of their plight and changed the law so the scholarships would issue directly from the State Board of Education, bypassing the renegade school districts.
A five-year battle with public school bureaucrats
Two of the school districts—Jenks and Union Public Schools—then turned around and sued the parents for accepting their scholarships. Becket defended the students’ rights again, this time all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which dismissed the lawsuit, chastising the school districts for going after their own students.
Despite that ruling, the school districts renewed the lawsuit, this time against the State Board of Education for granting the scholarships. In 2014, a lower court upheld the scholarship program, but only for students attending schools that were secular or religious “in name only.” Becket stepped in again, arguing what should have been obvious: when the state makes benefits generally available to its citizens, it can’t discriminate against some of them just because they are religious. Becket pointed out that this bizarre ruling would require the state to examine the beliefs of every religious school and decide which ones were too religious to accept the students’ scholarships.
Giving children with special needs equal access to public programs
In February 2016, the Oklahoma Supreme Court once again ruled in the students’ favor, finally upholding the Lindsey Nicole Scholarship Program for Children with Disabilities for good. Oklahoma children with learning disabilities are free to use their share of the state’s education funds for an education best suited to their individual needs.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling reaffirms that the government is not allowed to create a Goldilocks scenario of deciding which religious beliefs are ”just right.” The First Amendment requires that public programs be administered neutrally, without regard to religious belief. Thanks to Becket, the students and their families are finally able to participate in Oklahoma’s scholarship program on equal footing with everyone else.
Importance to Religious Liberty:
- Education: Religious schools should be able to participate in publicly available programs without discrimination, and religious school students should be able to participate in these programs on equal footing as students who attend non-religious schools.
- Dismantling discriminatory state laws: So long as anti-religious laws from the mid-19th century called Blaine Amendments remain in the books, people of all faiths can face discrimination, simply because they choose to attend a religious school.
Catholic Benefits Association v. Azar
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
A family seeking the American Dream
David and Barbara Green founded Hobby Lobby in a garage. From the beginning, it has been a family business—David worked an extra job to support his family, Barbara mailed out orders, and their children glued picture frames at the kitchen table in exchange for money to buy baseball cards. Hobby Lobby has since grown from one 300-square-foot store to more than 700 stores across the country, becoming one of the nation’s leading arts and crafts retailers. Their success story is a true example of the American dream.
The Greens are devout Christians who seek to honor God by “operating their company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles.” All stores are closed on Sundays and only operate 66 hours per week to allow employees to spend evenings and Sundays with their families. The Greens start all full-time hourly workers at more than double the federal minimum wage because they believe in treating people well.
A mandate that violates the Green family’s faith
In 2011, the government’s HHS Mandate required the Greens to provide insurance coverage for potentially life-terminating drugs and devices, contrary to the family’s religious convictions—or pay millions of dollars in fines to the IRS.
The Green family has no moral objection to 16 of 20 contraceptives required in the mandate, and Hobby Lobby has continued its longstanding practice of covering these drugs and services for their employees. However, the Greens could not provide or pay for four drugs and devices like the morning-after pill and the week-after pill. Covering these services would violate their deeply held religious belief that life begins at the moment of conception.
Becket leads the Green family to a Supreme Court victory
The Green family respects the rights of all Americans. But they believed that Hobby Lobby could not stay true to its mission while providing services that go against their beliefs. All they asked was that the government allow them to continue running their family business—providing quality jobs for the employees and quality products for their customers—according to their faith.
With the help of Becket, the Green family went to court to defend their rights and won, proving you don’t leave your religion at the door when you open a family business. After a two-year legal battle, on June 30, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a landmark victory for religious liberty, ruling 5-4 in favor of David and Barbara Green and their family business.
To hear the in-depth story, listen to our Stream of Conscience Podcast episode about this case, Pills and Principles.
Importance to religious liberty
- Individual freedom: Religious freedom protects the rights of individuals to observe their faith at all times, including in the workplace. Americans do not lose their religious beliefs when they open a family business.
- HHS Mandate cases: Winning the HHS mandate cases sets an important precedent, confirming that federal agencies cannot unnecessarily force religious people to violate their beliefs in order to further a government goal.
Jenks v. Spry
Related to previous Oklahoma Blaine cases: Jenks v. Spry & Kimery v. Broken Arrow Public Schools
Stephanie and Russell Spry’s disabled son will be able to get the best education from a school specially designed for his needs. After a five-year battle with school bureaucrats from a handful of public schools, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the Lindsey Nicole Scholarship Program for Children with Disabilities is constitutional and that religious organizations and individuals have the right to access generally available state aid on equal footing with everyone else.
The State of Oklahoma enacted the program in August 2010 to give students with learning disabilities scholarships based on the cost of their education to help them attend a private school of their choice that could help them with their specific learning disability. The vast majority of the state’s 541 school districts immediately complied with the law by issuing scholarship checks to eligible students. But four school districts decided on their own that complying with the law would somehow violate the state’s Blaine Amendment, an archaic provision in the state constitution that targets “sectarian” groups.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged that these provisions were “born of bigotry” in an era of widespread anti-Catholicism, these four districts unilaterally asserted the Oklahoma Blaine Amendment to deny students their state aid on the purported ground that allowing them to direct their own education might aid religiously-affiliated schools. Conveniently, of course, this allowed those school districts to keep the funds for themselves. After Becket sued to defend the students’ rights, the legislature learned of their plight and changed the law so the scholarships would issue directly from the State Board of Education, bypassing the renegade school districts.
Adding insult to injury, two of the school districts—Jenks and Union Public Schools—turned around and sued the Sprys, along with parents of three other children with learning disabilities, for accepting their scholarships! Again Becket defended the students’ rights, this time all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which eventually dismissed the lawsuit, chastising the school districts for going after their own students.
Despite the ruling from the high court, the school districts recruited allies to again renew the lawsuit, this time against the State Board of Education. In 2014, a lower court upheld the scholarship program, but only for students attending schools that were secular or religious “in name only.” On appeal, Becket again represented the student and their families, arguing that this bizarre ruling would have required the state to examine the beliefs of every religious school and decide which ones were too religious to accept the students’ scholarships. We made what should be an obvious point: when the state makes benefits generally available to its citizens, it can’t discriminate against some of them just because they are religious.
On February 16, 2016, the Oklahoma Supreme Court once again ruled in our favor, finally upholding the Lindsey Nicole Scholarship Program for Children with Disabilities. Now the Spry’s son and other Oklahoma children with learning disabilities are free to use their share of the state’s education funds for an education best suited to their individual needs. After five years of fighting, they can focus on their schooling, without fear that they will be denied the same opportunity as other students, just because of their religion.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling reaffirms that the government is not allowed to create a Goldilocks scenario of deciding which religious beliefs are ”just right.” The First Amendment requires that public programs be administered neutrally, without regard to religious belief.
The road to this victory was long, but—with the help of Becket—the students and their families are finally able to participate in Oklahoma’s scholarship program on equal footing with everyone else.
Becket was co-counsel in this case along with Lester, Loving, & Davies, P.C. (Andrew Lester, Carrie Vaughn, D. Matt Hopkins).
Kimery v. Broken Arrow Public Schools
Related to previous Oklahoma Blaine cases: Jenks v. Spry & Oliver v. Hofmeister
Stephanie and Russell Spry’s disabled son will be able to get the best education from a school specially designed for his needs. After a five-year battle with school bureaucrats from a handful of public schools, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the Lindsey Nicole Scholarship Program for Children with Disabilities is constitutional and that religious organizations and individuals have the right to access generally available state aid on equal footing with everyone else.
The State of Oklahoma enacted the program in August 2010 to give students with learning disabilities scholarships based on the cost of their education to help them attend a private school of their choice that could help them with their specific learning disability. The vast majority of the state’s 541 school districts immediately complied with the law by issuing scholarship checks to eligible students. But four school districts decided on their own that complying with the law would somehow violate the state’s Blaine Amendment, an archaic provision in the state constitution that targets “sectarian” groups.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged that these provisions were “born of bigotry” in an era of widespread anti-Catholicism, these four districts unilaterally asserted the Oklahoma Blaine Amendment to deny students their state aid on the purported ground that allowing them to direct their own education might aid religiously-affiliated schools. Conveniently, of course, this allowed those school districts to keep the funds for themselves. After the Becket Fund sued to defend the students’ rights, the legislature learned of their plight and changed the law so the scholarships would issue directly from the State Board of Education, bypassing the renegade school districts.
Adding insult to injury, two of the school districts—Jenks and Union Public Schools—turned around and sued the Sprys, along with parents of three other children with learning disabilities, for accepting their scholarships! Again the Becket Fund defended the students’ rights, this time all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which eventually dismissed the lawsuit, chastising the school districts for going after their own students.
Despite the ruling from the high court, the school districts recruited allies to again renew the lawsuit, this time against the State Board of Education. In 2014, a lower court upheld the scholarship program, but only for students attending schools that were secular or religious “in name only.” On appeal, the Becket Fund again represented the student and their families, arguing that this bizarre ruling would have required the state to examine the beliefs of every religious school and decide which ones were too religious to accept the students’ scholarships. We made what should be an obvious point: when the state makes benefits generally available to its citizens, it can’t discriminate against some of them just because they are religious.
On February 16, 2016, the Oklahoma Supreme Court once again ruled in our favor, finally upholding the Lindsey Nicole Scholarship Program for Children with Disabilities. Now the Spry’s son and other Oklahoma children with learning disabilities are free to use their share of the state’s education funds for an education best suited to their individual needs. After five years of fighting, they can focus on their schooling, without fear that they will be denied the same opportunity as other students, just because of their religion.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling reaffirms that the government is not allowed to create a Goldilocks scenario of deciding which religious beliefs are ”just right.” The First Amendment requires that public programs be administered neutrally, without regard to religious belief.
The road to this victory was long, but—with the help of the Becket Fund— the students and their families are finally able to participate in Oklahoma’s scholarship program on equal footing with everyone else.
EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores
Meet Samantha Elauf
Samantha Elauf is a fashion blogger who takes her faith seriously. When she was 17, she sought a job at her local mall’s Abercrombie & Fitch. She knew the company dress code prohibited hats but had previously hired a Jewish employee who wore a yarmulke, so she never imagined that her headscarf might be an issue.
The store manager who interviewed Samantha liked her and recommended that she be hired. But when the district manager learned about Samantha’s headscarf, he made the store manager lower Samantha’s scores so she would appear unqualified.
Blatant Discrimination
Abercrombie does have a policy that prohibits employees from wearing hats, but they’ve made religious accommodations numerous times in the past. But rather than acknowledge that their district manager erred in refusing to accommodate Samantha, Abercrombie claims she should not be protected by the Civil Rights Act—which prohibits employment discrimination on the grounds of race, national origin, sex, and religion—because she never “explicitly” confirmed in her interview that she wore the scarf for religious reasons. In short, Abercrombie refused to hire Samantha because of her Muslim faith, and now they want a free pass for discrimination.
But anti-discrimination laws have been on the books for over fifty years. These are the same laws championed by Martin Luther King, Jr. that protect our civil rights from discrimination to this day. Abercrombie blatantly denied Samantha Elauf a job on the basis of her religion, and that should not go unchallenged.
In 2011, a federal district court judge ruled in Samantha’s favor, but in October 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed. On October 2, 2014, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear Samantha’s case.
Protecting Religious Diversity
Becket became involved in this lawsuit for the first time at the Supreme Court. Becket champions religious diversity and defends Samantha’s right to bring her religious identity into her workplace. Religious expression is invaluable and inseparable from the human experience. No American should be forced to leave their faith at the door when they enter the workplace, especially when their religious activity has no impact on their employer’s business. Society will only benefit from protecting religious diversity everywhere, even at the mall.
On December 11, 2014, Becket filed an amicus brief in this case. On February 25, 2015, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in this case.
On June 1, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of religious job seekers. The Court held that a job seeker suing for religious discrimination only has to show that their need for a religious accommodation–such as wearing a headscarf–was a “motivating factor” in the employer’s decision not to hire. Even if the employer is not certain the applicant needs a religious accommodation, they can be liable if they suspect there is a need for religious accommodation and reject the job applicant for that reason. This Supreme Court ruling requires that employers be mindful of the potential religious needs of job applicants and not let the possible need for a religious accommodation influence their employment decisions.
The Solicitor General and Department of Justice represented Samantha.
Centennial Baptist Church, Oklahoma
The city of Sand Springs, Oklahoma needed a new property to build a new commercial development complex, and it had eyes on the Centennial Baptist Church property. The city offered to purchase Church property and had indicated that it would invoke eminent domain to seize it if necessary. The church officially rejected the offer, refusing to leave the home that its small, but vibrant African-American congregation had worshiped in for decades.
In March 2006, Becket sent a letter to the City of Sand Springs, Oklahoma on behalf of Centennial Baptist Church, demanding that the city immediately end further attempts to seize the church’s property in violation of the Constitution.
“To put it simply,” the letter stated, “the church property is not for sale, and any attempt by the City to seize the Church’s property through eminent domain will be challenged by immediate legal action.”
The letter further cautioned the city that “the Church’s right to engage in religious exercise on its property, free from government burden and interference, is fully protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.”
Rather than face Becket in court, the city immediately dropped its plans to use eminent domain to seize the property, and the people of Centennial Baptist Church were able to continue worshiping in their house of worship as they had for decades.