Michigan ministries fight law they say threatens their religious freedom

Taking their cases to a court of appeals, a Michigan Catholic school and a Christian medical ministry are challenging a state law they say would force them to adopt practices contrary to their faith.

Christian Healthcare Centers and Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to uphold their freedom to operate according to their religious beliefs in two separate cases, according to an Oct. 26 press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represents them. ADF attorneys submitted opening briefs for filing Oct. 23.

The appeals are the latest development in lawsuits filed in 2022 over how Michigan’s civil rights law applies to the ministries’ religious practices. They follow Aug. 5 rulings declining to extend First Amendment protections to the ministries’ hiring practices for some staff positions, according to ADF.

The Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act threatens to force the medical ministry to prescribe cross-sex hormones, use pronouns inconsistent with a person’s sex, and hire employees who do not share its faith, ADF said. ADF also said in the release that the law prohibits the ministry from publicly explaining its religious reasons for those choices.

The law also threatens to require Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish and its school, Sacred Heart Academy, to hire staff whose conduct conflicts with Catholic teaching, according to ADF. The firm says the law restricts the school’s ability to express Catholic beliefs in classroom instruction and advertising to prospective students and employees.

ADF Senior Counsel Chris Schandevel criticized Michigan officials’ approach to the ministries.

“Religious organizations should be free to serve their communities according to their beliefs. … The Constitution requires Michigan officials to respect religious organizations’ freedom to follow the very faith that has motivated them to serve others,” he said in the release.

Four parents who chose Sacred Heart Academy for its Catholic faith and values also joined the lawsuit, arguing that the law threatens their children’s religious education, according to ADF.

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ADF said the district court also declined to grant protection despite finding that other aspects of the law likely violated the ministries’ First Amendment rights.

Sacred Heart’s appeal argues that the First Amendment protects its right to require all employees, not just ministers, to share its faith.

“That is a religious judgment the government may not second-guess,” the brief states, according to the release. “Federal law and most states respect it. But Michigan does not.”

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