In Woods v. Seattle's Union Gospel Mission, (WA Sup. Ct., March 4, 2021), the state of Washington's Supreme Court rejected a facial challenge to an exemption in the state's anti-discrimination law for religious and other non-profit corporations. Plaintiff was denied employment by a Christian legal aid program for the homeless because he was in a same-sex relationship. The majority held that because reasonable grounds exist to distinguish non-profit corporations from others, the exemption does not, on its face, violate Article I, §12 of the state constitution that prohibits any law granting privileges or immunities which are not equally available to all. The majority concluded, however, that the law may be unconstitutional as applied to plaintiff in this case. It held that courts should look to federal case law on the ministerial exception doctrine to determine this:
Here, Woods seeks employment as a lawyer with SUGM. SUGM has rejected his application because it maintains that all employees’ first duty is to minister. In order to balance Woods’ fundamental rights with the religious protections guaranteed to SUGM, we hold that article I, section 12 is not offended if WLAD’s exception for religious organizations is applied concerning the claims of a “minister” as defined by Our Lady of Guadalupe and Hosanna-Tabor.
Justice Yu filed a concurring opinion which was joined by Chief Justice Gonzalez. Justice Stephens filed an opinion dissenting in part, joined by Justice Fairhurst.
