The Center filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Youth 71Five, urging the Court to review the Ninth Circuit decision in Youth 71Five v. Williams. In this case, despite federal law that expressly guarantees the right of religious organizations to have creed requirements for their staff, the state of Oregon punished Youth 71Five for exercising those rights, discontinuing the organization’s eligibility for state grants it had been receiving for its work among high-risk youth. The Center had previously filed an amicus brief on September 15, 2025, in support of Youth 71 Five’s en banc reconsideration motion after the Ninth Circuit affirmed a federal judge’s denial of a preliminary injunction against the state. On November 26, the panel affirmed in part (saying that the Supreme Court and circuit courts had ever held that church autonomy or the ministerial exception could be Section 1983 standalone claims, as opposed to solely defenses, which the Center disagrees with), denied the motion for reconsideration, denied damages (because of qualified immunity), and amended its opinion to reverse the trial court’s denial of an injunction against the state of Oregon to the extent Oregon tried to penalize Youth 71Five for implementing its co-religionist hiring policy in programs not funded by the state.
