6th Circuit rules in Ky. Baptist Homes for Children: Employment discrimination dismissed, but lesbian Establishment claims survive

Earlier in the year, the ADF Alliance Alert carried this Kentucky Post summary of the litigation: “Attorneys in a case involving a Kentucky Baptist children’s program will appear before a federal appeals court this week to argue about the role of government funding for faith-based institutions. The nine-year-old lawsuit alleges that the Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children has used public dollars to indoctrinate children and fired a lesbian employee for religious reasons . . . ”

The Alert also carried this summary by Greg Baylor at the CLS Blog: “NPR did a story this morning about the future of the faith-based initiative under the Obama Administration. The story featured a CLS Center case, Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (KBHC) . . . ” in which proponents of homosexual behavior and the ACLU attempted to prevent funding of KBHC.

The foregoing summaries help place in context these excerpts from today’s ruling in  Pedreira, et al. v. Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, et al., No. 08-5538 (6th Cir. Aug. 31, 2009):

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JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs-appellants Alicia M. Pedreira, Karen Vance, and several Kentucky taxpayers appeal the district court’s dismissal of their claims against defendants-appellees Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, Inc. (“KBHC”) . . . Pedreira and Vance brought suit against KBHC for its policy of firing and not hiring gay and lesbian employees, alleging discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) and the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, and the plaintiffs brought suit against all defendants for violations of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky granted KBHC’s motion to dismiss the employment discrimination claims and, in a subsequent order, dismissed the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims against all defendants because it concluded that the plaintiffs did not have standing.

For the reasons that follow, we affirm the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ employment discrimination claims, but we reverse the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims and remand them for further proceedings . . .

KBHC is funded by Kentucky for its participation in the “Alternatives for Children Program,” which provides placement resources for children who have been, or are at risk of being, abused or neglected.

Looking at the record that was before the district court, we find that the plaintiffs have not alleged a sufficient nexus to show federal taxpayer standing . . . This case thus falls squarely within the line of cases where the Supreme Court and our sister circuits have upheld taxpayer standing when grants, contracts, or other tax-funded aid are provided to private religious organizations pursuant to explicit legislative authorization . . . Finding that the plaintiffs have sufficiently demonstrated standing as state taxpayers, we reverse the judgment of the district court. To the extent that the second amended complaint and supporting documents clarified the plaintiffs’ standing arguments, we reverse the district court’s denial of the plaintiffs’ motion for leave to amend with respect to the amendments regarding standing only.