At the intersection of Church and State Street in Salem, Oregon, USA. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday issued a partial ruling in favor of the Medford-based nonprofit Youth 71Five Ministries. (Getty Images)
An Oregon Department of Education policy aiming to prevent grant awardees for youth support services from discriminating on the basis of religion can only regulate activity tied to the state’s funding, a federal judge ruled.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday issued a partial ruling in favor of the Medford-based nonprofit Youth 71Five Ministries, which describes itself as providing “many opportunities for loving, caring, Christ-following adults to engage in the lives of lost and hurting kids.” The Rogue Valley Christian youth-mentoring program in March 2024 sued the state’s education department, alleging an abrupt change in policy for a service provider that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding since 2017.
Monday’s 42-page decision says the overall anti-discrimination policy can stand because it is neutral in its application across religious identities, but the opinion orders the U.S. District Court of Oregon to stop the education department from “enforcement of the rule as to initiatives that do not receive grant funding from the division.”
“Though the rule is likely a permissible restriction on expressive association within the limited public forum of the program, that does not justify the separate burden it imposes on 71Five as a whole,” wrote Appellate Judge Anthony Johnstone, who was nominated to the Court by President Joe Biden. He was joined in his decision by Appellate Judge Morgan Christen, chosen by President Barack Obama in 2011. Judge Johnnie Rawlinson, a Bill Clinton appointee, concurred but did not join the majority.
Liz Merah, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Education, said officials are still reviewing the decision and considering next steps. She did not have additional comments.
Since 2017, Youth 71Five Ministries has received funding through biennial grants from Oregon’s Youth Community Investment Grants program. The initiative aims to serve youth aged 6 to 19 who are vulnerable to disengagement from school or behavior that leads to criminal activity and mental or physical harm. Youth 71Five Ministries has offered several services for marginalized youth in Jackson County, including programs such as mentoring and vocational training, according to 2022 and 2023 community health reports.
Origin of challenged policy
The education department’s Youth Development Division in 2022, meanwhile, issued a rule that ordered recipients of the division’s grants to “not discriminate in its employment practices, vendor selection, subcontracting or service delivery” with regards to several protected categories, among them religion. The agency argued that this policy furthered its “commitment to equitable access, equal opportunity and inclusion.”
“The division does not deny funding to all organizations that express a religious viewpoint: it awarded grants to support 71Five’s religious programming for five years and continues to fund at least four other faith-based grantees,” reads the opinion. “Nor does the division treat those organizations differently based on their religious messages.”
But when it came time to fund the Medford nonprofit, an anonymous complaint raised concerns about the organization’s policy of hiring only those committed to the Christian faith. The development division yanked more than $400,000 in funding for Youth 71 Five for the 2023-25 budget cycle in October 2023, prompting a March 2024 lawsuit alleging violations of religious freedom. The Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, backed the nonprofit’s case.
“We are currently reviewing the ruling and will continue to defend the fundamental right of religious organizations to hire individuals who share their faith,” said Jeremiah Galus, senior counsel for the group, in a statement. “Being religious should never disqualify an organization from a program to help those in need.”
Monday’s decision averts any monetary damages the state could have owed the nonprofit on the grounds of qualified immunity, with the opinion noting that lawyers for the youth-mentoring program failed to demonstrate how their rights to free expression of religion were clearly violated. During the original lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Clarke rejected plaintiff’s request for a broader preliminary injunction seeking to restore access to the grant funding for the youth-focused nonprofit.
The new opinion leaves a path open for the education department to revise the policy that sparked the lawsuit. The court granted Youth 71Five Ministries a preliminary injunction that will prevent Oregon from enforcing its policy against initiatives that aren’t funded by the division.
“The rule’s application to division-funded initiatives is likely a permissible burden on 71Five’s expressive association,” the decision reads. “But applying the rule to initiatives that receive no grant funding likely violates 71Five’s right of expressive association. Denying a preliminary injunction as to those initiatives was an abuse of discretion.”
Youth 71Five Ministries has long served Oregon’s southern Rogue Valley communities, originally having been founded in 1964. It was originally named Rogue Valley Youth for Christ, but changed its title in 2018 as a reference to Psalm 71:5, a Bible verse about having faith since youth.
