A rural Catholic parish is taking on the State of Michigan to protect its Christian identity and mission from state politicians.
St. Joseph Church is a Catholic parish that has served the mid-Michigan community of St. Johns since 1857. Although St. Johns is the Clinton County seat, its population is only 7,698, and the area is distinguished by farmland, plains and forests.
In 1924 St. Joseph opened a school with the goal of providing a Christian education to the children of the parish. Michigan politicians want to change all that.
Expanding the Definition of Sex Discrimination
Michigan recently joined a parade of other states by expanding its civil rights law to prohibit organizations and businesses that are open to the public from discriminating on the basis of sexual preference and gender identity.
But the Great Lakes State failed to make an important accommodation when expanding the law, according to Will Haun, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights.
"Michigan's anti-discrimination laws were changed such that all religious organizations can be punished because they exercise their religion on matters of sexuality, marriage and gender, and their doors are open to everyone," Haun told Newsmax.
He observed that federal law doesn't go nearly as far as Michigan.
"Federal Title VII civil rights statutes involving employment, for example, provides kind of a categorical protection for religious employers making certain employment decisions."
Conversely, "In Michigan, what St. Joseph was told, is that the breadth of this new law would make it impossible for Michigan to say it wouldn't prosecute St. Joseph simply for exercising their religion either as an employer, or how it runs its school."
Under Michigan's new standards, the parish is prevented from limiting their hiring to like-minded teachers and staff — those who share and practice the church's religious beliefs.
The Becket Fund represents St. Joseph parish in its federal lawsuit against the state.
Lawyer: Omission Was No Accident
"This expansion of Michigan's civil rights law in this way, without any kind of religious exception, was intentional," Haun said. "There was a five-year effort in Michigan by the attorney general, the Department of Civil Rights, and the Civil Rights Commission to pursue religious objectors who had sincerely-held religious beliefs about marriage and sexuality all the way up to the Michigan Supreme Court, to redefine first, that sex discrimination meant to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
"And after that in order for the attorney general to enshrine their victory into the text of Michigan law so that it could withstand ... future legal attack.
"The goal for this is to recognize that religious institutions, when they exercise their beliefs on sexuality and marriage that, in the words of Attorney General [Dana] Nessel, 'they're not religious heroes — they're bigots.'"
Haun observed that 22 other states have expanded their sex discrimination statutes to include sexual orientation and gender identity, but of those only one — Washington state — made no accommodation for religious organizations.
Should Have Been an Easy Win
Haun found it noteworthy that the federal district court ruled that St. Joseph had no standing to sue, and dismissed it's lawsuit on that basis.
"It is amazing," he said. "Because the question at this stage is simply 'can St. Joseph bring a lawsuit,' and in order to answer that question, the court must answer three other questions."
One, whether St. Joseph is engaging in a constitutional activity: "We surely are," he said. "We're a church that's engaging in religious exercise in religious instruction. If that's not protected by the freedom of religion, then I don't know what is."
Two, whether St. Joseph would be subject to the new law, and it is, "as an employer, as a school, as essentially a public accommodation, so that should have answered question two.
"And the third question is 'Does the church have credible threat of the law being enforced against them?' And here again, Michigan admitted that it would be impossible to not enforce the law against St. Joseph because of how broad the new law is and how much conduct it makes illegal that St. Joseph engages in."
Haun concluded, "For all of these reasons this should have been open-and-shut, and hopefully the Sixth Circuit will see it."
For the nonreligious this battle may appear insignificant. But once a right is lost, it's lost forever, and it emboldens the state to chip away at other fundamental rights.
The Becket Fund filed its appeal on behalf of St. Joseph with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 19, 2023, and oral arguments will be held in the spring of 2024.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.