In a ruling last week, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of Gracehaven Safe House. The ruling was based on the court’s assessment the ministry is likely to win its lawsuit alleging county government violated its First Amendment rights.
For years Gracehaven Safe House has helped young girls overcome a horrific life of abuse, but the ministry learned last year its faith-based focus was a problem for government officials with Montgomery County, Ohio. Due to the ministry’s faith-based hiring policy, the county’s Department of Job and Family Services dropped Gracehaven from the county’s foster care system, which also meant cutting off public funds from a program known as Title IV-E.
In its ruling for the preliminary injunction, the court said Gracehaven had demonstrated it suffered “irreparable harm” because the ministry was unable to follow up on 25 foster care referrals after the county contract was not renewed.
Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Gracehaven sued Montgomery County late last year after the county refused to renew the annual contract for foster care services. What caused the county to drop Gracehaven, after seven years of cooperation, was the ministry’s refusal to a non-discrimination hiring policy used by the county. The ministry instead insisted on using is own policy.
Last week, in an 11-page ruling, a federal district court gave Gracehaven a key legal victory when it ruled the county must continue to work with the ministry while the lawsuit proceeds.
ADF attorney Jake Reed, who is representing Gracehaven, tells AFN religious organizations have the right, “both constitutionally and protected by various statutes,” to hire people who share their faith.
Even though the First Amendment right to religious express has been upheld in a string of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Reed says Montgomery County seems determined to waste taxpayers’ money and fight a legal battle the judge has stated the ministry is likely to win.
“Montgomery County, and more specifically their Department of Job and Family Services, refuse to continue working with Gracehaven, because Gracehaven does a terrible thing – and I say that with sarcasm – of hiring people who share their faith,” the ADF attorney says.
A person who holds similar or the same religious views is known as a “coreligionist,” a term used 10 times in the court ruling.
