Beliefs and Principles

[Michael McConnell]

Marty Lederman writes:

>  My post was simply intended to suggest that, even
> without an exemption for religious organizations, such organizations would not
> be disadvantaged (at least not formally) relative to secular recipients.  As a
> matter of *statutory* law, all of them -- the Sierra Club and the Salvation
> Army alike -- *may* discriminate on the basis of employees' principles, but,
> *absent* a religious-organization exemption, none of them may discriminate on
> the basis of employees' religious status, religious conduct, or religious
> beliefs.  Thus, when the state does grant such an exemption, it is giving
> religious organizations something that other funding recipients do not get --
> the right to discriminate against employees who do not share a particular
> religious status or belief, even as to jobs that involve no religious
> activities.

I have a question. Suppose the government passed a law forbidding
employment discrimination on the basis of the worker's perspective on
environmental issues. Would that place the Sierra Club at a
disadvantage relative to other ideological organizations? After all,
no organization--the Sierra Club or the Salvation Army--would be
permitted to discriminate in hiring on the basis of the employee's
views of the proper treatment of the environment.


-- Michael McConnell (U of Utah)