Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 961328.pdf

Citation: Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 961328.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/961328.pdf ↗

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particularly true given that the Supreme Court did not recognize the ministerial

exception until 2012, fully 63 years after our legislature created WLAD’s religious

employer exemption. See Hosanna-Tabor, 565 U.S at 188-89 (first recognizing the

ministerial exception); LAWS OF 1949, ch. 183, § 3(b) (exempting religious

nonprofits from the definition of employer). 7

Taking the religious employer exemption as we find it—a requirement for

reasonable grounds review under article I, section 12—I would hold the categorical

exemption of religious nonprofits from WLAD’s definition of employer grants an

unconstitutional privilege to a favored class of employers. By its plain terms, the

exemption categorically carves out religious nonprofits from WLAD, no matter if

their activities have any religious purpose. RCW 49.60.040(11); Farnam, 116

7
To be fair, lower federal courts had recognized the ministerial exception well
before the United States Supreme Court. See McClure v. Salvation Army, 460 F.2d 553,
558 (5th Cir. 1972). But even this earliest articulation of the ministerial exception came
23 years after the Washington legislature exempted religious nonprofits from WLAD. The
Washington State legislature could not have relied on this theory of federal constitutional
law to provide reasonable grounds for its decision to exempt religious nonprofits from
WLAD in 1949.

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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
Woods v. Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, 96132-8
(Stephens, J., dissenting in part and concurring in part)

Wn.2d at 672-81 (holding that the legislature categorically exempted all religious

nonprofits entities from liability under WLAD, including subsidiaries not engaged