Union Gospel Mission of Yakima v. Brown

Becket Role:
Amicus
Case Start Date:
March 2, 2023
Deciding Court:
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Original Court:
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington
Practice Area(s):

Case Snapshot

For nearly a century, Union Gospel Mission of Yakima has put its Christian faith into action by serving people facing homelessness, hunger, addiction, and illness across central Washington. To carry out that essential work, the Mission asks all its employees to uphold its religious beliefs in word and deed. But Washington officials are now threatening to punish the Mission for hiring people who share and live by the beliefs at the heart of its ministry. Washington’s actions threaten not just the Mission, but all religious groups who seek to live out their faith in word and deed.

Status

A federal district court blocked Washington from punishing Union Gospel Mission for hiring employees who share its faith, and a unanimous Ninth Circuit panel upheld that protection in January 2026. The full court later agreed to rehear the case. On July 23, 2026, Becket filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Aleph Institute supporting the Mission.

Case Summary

A Christian ministry serving central Washington 

Founded in 1936, the Union Gospel Mission of Yakima is a Christian ministry that serves people in need throughout central Washington. It operates a homeless shelter, health clinics, meal services, and programs that help people recover from addiction. In one year alone, the Mission provided more than 140,000 free meals, over 30,000 nights of shelter, and helped dozens regain sobriety.  

The Mission serves people no matter who they are, what they believe, or how they identify. The employees who carry out that work form a community of shared faith. That inward community strengthens the Mission’s outward service, helping it present a united and consistent Christian message to the people it cares for. That is why the Mission employs only those who agree to share and live out its faith. 

Washington threatens the Mission for keeping the faith 

For more than 70 years, Washington law protected the right of religious nonprofits like Union Gospel Mission to hire only employees who share their faith and agree to uphold it. But in 2021, the Washington Supreme Court limited that protection to ministers, allowing the state to punish the Mission for applying its religious standards to employees it does not consider ministers. 

Washington’s actions threaten not just the Mission, but all faith communities. Becket is representing the Aleph Institute in a friend-of-the-court brief urging the full Ninth Circuit to protect the Mission. Aleph is a national Jewish organization rooted in the Orthodox Jewish, Hasidic tradition of Chabad Lubavitch that serves people isolated from their communities. Like Union Gospel Mission, Aleph regularly makes faith-based decisions about the religious qualifications of its employees.  

Becket’s brief explains that religious organizations—not courts or government officials—must remain free to decide what religious commitments their employees must share. Limiting that freedom to ministers is especially dangerous to minority faiths, and it would draw judges into religious decisions the First Amendment leaves to religious communities. 

Importance to Religious Liberty:

  • Religious Communities: Churches and religious organizations have a right to live, teach, and govern in accordance with the tenets of their faith. When the government unjustly interferes in internal church affairs, the relationship between church and state is threatened. The First Amendment ensures a church’s right to self-definition and free association.