MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WDNews) — Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the state has joined a multistate coalition in support of religious organizations’ right to decide their own missions and employment practices without interference from secular courts.
The coalition, led by Virginia, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit after a Maryland law limiting protections for religious organizations was narrowed by the state’s Supreme Court. That ruling said the exemption from employment discrimination only applies to workers who “directly further” a group’s “core mission.”
Marshall criticized that decision, saying, “Courts have no business telling a church what its ‘core mission’ is. That role belongs to the religious community alone, as the Founders understood when they enshrined religious liberty in the Constitution. Our coalition will continue to stand against every encroachment on this fundamental freedom, and I am confident the court will correct the lower court’s deeply misguided ruling.”
The case stems from the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists and Adventist Risk Management, Inc., which require employees to be church members in good standing. They argue that every employee helps advance their religious mission. Under Maryland’s new rule, that practice could be challenged by courts deciding which employees count as “close enough” to the mission.
The amicus brief argues that the restriction violates the First Amendment, stressing that both the Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause protect religious groups from government intrusion.
Marshall joined attorneys general from 21 other states, including Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and West Virginia, in filing the brief.
