October 1, 2026
SEATTLE (BP) – The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has submitted an amicus brief supporting a Christian ministry’s right to hire support staff who agree with the ministry’s tenets in a case the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is rehearing.
A Ninth Circuit panel in January upheld Union Gospel Mission of Yakima’s right to hire Christian support staff, but the full Ninth Circuit has agreed to rehear the case in the state of Washington’s attempt to halt the hiring practice. Becket filed the brief on behalf of the national nonprofit Aleph Institute, a Jewish organization committed to advancing religious liberty and other human rights. Becket’s brief supports the Christian ministry as an issue of church autonomy, described as both a constitutional and existential matter.
Union Gospel Mission of Yakima, which has served homeless, hungry, addicted, and other individuals in need in central Washington for nearly a century, has long hired support staff who shared and agreed to uphold its Christian beliefs. But in 2021, the Washington Supreme Court limited religious-based hiring to ministers, opening the door for the state to challenge religious-based hiring of staff it deemed non-ministerial.
“Aleph has a substantial interest in this case as it presents constitutional issues that will affect the ability of religious organizations — including, in unique ways, minority faith communities — to have and uphold religious qualifications for employment free from civil interference,” Becket said in the brief filed July 24th.
Allowing the state to police religious hiring would threaten all faith communities, Becket senior counsel Rebekah Ricketts said in announcing the filing.
“Washington should stay in its lane,” Ricketts said. “Religious freedom is a dead letter if government officials can dictate who carries out a religious ministry’s mission. Those decisions belong to religious groups alone, not government bureaucrats.”
Limiting religious-based hiring to ministers is especially dangerous to minority faiths and would empower judges to make decisions the First Amendment leaves to religious communities, Becket said.
“A Jewish school shouldn’t be forced to hire an antisemitic janitor, and a Christian charity shouldn’t have to hire someone who mocks the cross,” Ricketts said in a press release. “That’s just common sense. We’re confident the full Ninth Circuit will recognize that religious groups must be free to hire people who will support — not sabotage — their mission.”
A ministry’s entire staff is important to its mission, Becket said.
“A Jewish day school led by a wholly orthodox rabbi would still lose students if its janitors and receptionists wore antisemitic attire,” Becket wrote in its brief. “And while that dynamic holds distinctly true for minority faith groups, who often face greater societal pressures with fewer internal resources, no religious groups would last long if they could not ensure their formal representatives practice what they preach. Church autonomy is both a constitutional matter and an existential one.”
Union has won its case in every court to date, including the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington where the case originated in 2023.
The Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, while not a party to the Becket brief, has long supported the right of religious employers to hire ministers and staff who profess and agree to and uphold certain religious tenets.
The full Ninth Circuit is expected to hear the case this year.
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This story appeared in Baptist Press.
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