The 9th Circuit yesterday ruled that the Fair Housing Act's ban on religious discrimination does not apply to a residential religious drug-treatment facility. The Boise Rescue Mission was sued by 2 former clients for requiring participants to engage in religious activities. The court ruled that a religious exemption (section 3607) in the FHA protects the organization from such claims.
No one disputes that Defendant is a bona fide Christian organization that does not restrict its membership on account of race, color, or national origin. And no one disputes that Defendant operates its homeless shelters and drug treatment program for “other than a commercial purpose.” Because Defendant satisfies those threshold requirements, this case presents us with the opportunity to apply § 3607(a) cleanly to the religious practices at issue.
With respect to the drug treatment program, we see nothing in Cowles’ allegations to suggest that Defendant does anything other than give preference to persons of its religion.
Another important issue lurking in this case is whether there is an Establishment Clause problem, since one of the plaintiffs was given the (non)choice by a judge of either entering the Christian facility or going to jail. The court hear declined to discuss that argument since it was not raised by the plaintiff.
