(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/20/2024) A federal appellate panel held two religious entities have established standing in their challenge to Michigan’s civil rights law that now includes sexual orientation and gender identity protections.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling reverses the district court’s dismissal against Christian Healthcare Centers and Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, returning the suits to the lower court for further work.

The panel held that it’s plausible “a member of the public would file a complaint” with the state regarding either entity’s activities related to potential violations of the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), and given that the state will not “disavow enforcement or otherwise indicate how they would view such a complaint, it is credible that enforcement would follow.”

Circuit Judge Eric E. Murphy concurred, noting that he believes the courts must decide the state-law question first.

“The Department, Christian Healthcare, and Sacred Heart thus must at some point disclose their positions on the actual (not just arguable) meaning of ELCRA,” Murphy noted.

However, the appellate panel held St. Joseph Parish in St. Johns lacked standing.

“St. Joseph has not alleged that any teacher, student or parent (a) is either gay or transgender, (b) intends to participate in conduct proscribed by St. Joseph’s beliefs and policies, or (c) has ever complained about those policies,” the published opinion from Judge Jane B. Stranch reads. “Absent such allegations, any ECLRA complaint based on these categories is too hypothetical to support St. Joseph’s standing.”

The three entities argued in June that they each want to be able to live their religious values, including noting on their websites that employees must fit their beliefs and not referring to transgender persons by their chosen pronouns, instead using their “preferred first or last names.” 

Christian Healthcare also refuses to offer treatment to help patients “transition to the opposite biological sex” and Sacred Heart, a parish-run school, also wants to fill an art teacher and an athletic coach position using religiously motivated hiring criteria.

The district court dismissed the lawsuits for lack of standing.