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3w ago

9th Circuit Applies Ministerial Exception to Uphold World Vision’s Job Offer Withdrawal

The ruling deems donor-facing customer-service roles as performing central spiritual duties by praying with supporters.

An international religious ministry that offered a woman a job was entitled to withdraw that offer after learning she was married to another woman, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

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.