Appeals court resurrects lawsuit against New York requiring pro-life groups to hire pro-choicers

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Posted on 01/05/2025 3:12:00 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Mission-driven organizations often fight laws and policies that require them to accept individuals at odds with their mission, notably those in same-sex relationships for leadership and employment within Christian organizations.

Pro-life individuals and pregnancy centers routinely face limits on their advocacy and even threats to their existence from so-called buffer zone laws outside abortion facilities and Democratic attorneys general who see them as inherently deceptive.

New York took the unusual step in 2019 of combining these restrictions into a single law, signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, that prohibits "discrimination based on an individual's or a dependent's reproductive health decision making," depriving religious and secular pro-life organizations their ability to associate with only those who share their values.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived a lawsuit against the so-called "Boss Bill" (SB 660) Thursday, four and a half years after a district court dismissed all but one claim by two pregnancy center networks and a church, citing its February 2023 ruling that the law plausibly forced another pregnancy center network to hire those who act against its "very mission."

That network, the Evergreen Association, sued in 2020 represented by the Thomas More Society, and argued that "being forced to hire employees who have had abortions" and did "not regret" them, "or would opt for an abortion in the future," would weaken its "mission to encourage expectant mothers to choose life" and its pro-life message.

The New York City-based appeals court had rebuked the district court for finding the burden on the Evergreen Association's "expressive association" was "minimal." It required the Empire State to meet the "strict scrutiny" standard of judicial review – a compelling government interest in regulating expression via the "least restrictive means."

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To: E. Pluribus Unum

2 posted on 01/05/2025 3:12:48 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)

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