A coalition led by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is challenging Maryland’s employment law that limits religious hiring exemptions.
VIRGINIA, USA — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is leading a 21-state effort to defend the rights of religious organizations to establish their own hiring practices and guidelines for their ministries.
The group filed a legal brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in response to a Maryland Supreme Court decision. That ruling limits a religious exemption in Maryland’s employment law, saying it only applies to employees who “directly further” a religious group’s “core mission.”
Miyares said that means courts, not the churches or other faith organizations, would decide which employees are essential to the mission, and that the decision could have serious consequences.
“The First Amendment guarantees every faith the right to define its mission and hire accordingly,” he said. “Maryland’s scheme forces courts into theological judgments they are ill-equipped to make, and that intrusion threatens the religious liberty of every Virginian and every American.”
The case involves the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists and Adventist Risk Management, which requires all employees to be members of the church. They argue this is critical to carrying out their religious mission.
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