The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield and the Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Western Division, challenging the recently amended Illinois Human Rights Act.
A new lawsuit claims that an Illinois law may compel religious employers to hire individuals who engage in activities that conflict with their held religious beliefs, such as undergoing or performing abortions.
The Act's Employment Clause states that it is a civil rights violation for an employer to make hiring, promotion, training, or dismissal decisions based on unlawful discrimination or status, including “reproductive health” among other protected characteristics.
The employee handbook of the Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford explicitly states that “referring, assisting in the procurement of, providing, or receiving an abortion ... is cause for refusal to hire.” Similarly, the Diocese of Springfield imposes “disciplinary action, up to and including termination” for employees who do not conduct themselves in a manner consistent with Catholic principles, and having or assisting in an abortion would fall into this category.
The plaintiffs fear potential litigation under the Illinois Human Rights Act for requiring employees to adhere to Christian beliefs regarding the sanctity of human life, based on statements made by Illinois Department of Human Rights Director James Bennett and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
The Illinois Human Rights Act declares that “‘Employer’ does not include any place of worship, religious corporation, association, educational institution, society, or non-profit nursing institution ... with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such place of worship, corporation, association, educational institution, society or non-profit nursing institution of its activities.”
However, the complaint asserts that “Defendants do not apply this religious exclusion to Plaintiffs' conduct in matters of reproduction.” The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the Illinois Human Rights Act a violation of multiple clauses in the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Additionally, the lawsuit requests a federal judge to issue a preliminary and permanent injunction “to stop Defendants and any person acting in concert with them from investigating or otherwise enforcing the Act against Plaintiffs in connection with Plaintiffs' speech and conduct related to reproductive decisions.”
Mark Lippelmann, a senior counsel with the Christian conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the plaintiffs, stated that the state “can't force pro-life religious organizations to bend their knee to the state's secular view of abortion.”
He added, “The Constitution protects the right of religious organizations to choose workers who will advance — rather than contradict — their religious beliefs,” urging the court to uphold these organizations' fundamental right to serve their communities consistent with their faith.
The defendants, Raoul and Bennett, have not publicly commented on the lawsuit despite media inquiries.
