Californa Doctors Can Raise Free Exercise Defense

Yesterday in Northcoast Women's Care Medical Group v. Superior Court, a California state appellate court held that two doctors being sued by a lesbian woman for refusing to perform intrauterine insemination on her could assert their constitutional right to free exercise of religion in defending against her discrimination charges. The court held that the doctors could introduce evidence of their religious beliefs as part of their proof that their refusal was based on plaintiff's marital status rather than her sexual orientation. California's Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civil Code, Sec. 51), at the time this suit was filed, had been interpreted to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but not on the basis of marital status. In reporting on the decision, today's San Diego Union Tribune points out that subsequently the California Supreme Court extended the Act to discrimination on the basis of marital status, but did not apply the holding retroactively. Similarly the statute itself has been amended prospectively. Jennifer Pizer, a lawyer with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said that religious beliefs are not a valid defense in this case.