Overview
- The unanimous 3–0 ruling overturned U.S. District Judge James Robart’s 2023 decision that classified the customer-service position as secular.
- Judges Richard Tallman, Ronald Gould and Morgan Christen invoked the Supreme Court’s 2012 Hosanna-Tabor precedent to extend the ministerial exception to non-clergy donor engagement roles.
- The court held that customer-service staff who inform donors about World Vision’s work and engage in prayer carry out vital religious functions central to its mission.
- Seventeen states and multiple religious organizations filed briefs backing World Vision’s position while California and 18 other states supported Aubry McMahon’s discrimination claim.
- McMahon’s legal team is weighing a Supreme Court appeal to challenge the decision’s expansion of religious employers’ hiring authority.