The Biden administration has agreed to pay $210,000 in attorney fees and costs to conclude a lawsuit won by a coalition of Christian businesses challenging the administration’s policies on gender transitions. The Christian Employers Alliance, a coalition of Christian business owners, sued the Biden administration in 2021 over two policies it said violated its religious freedoms guaranteed under federal law.
One of those policies, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rule, requires employers to provide and pay for health insurance that covers gender transition surgeries and treatments. The other policy, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule, requires healthcare workers to participate in gender transition surgeries and treatments. Attorneys for the Christian Employers Alliance had argued the Biden administration wrongly re-interpreted “sex” in federal law to include gender identity.
A federal judge sided with the Christian Employers Alliance this year and ruled the policies violate “their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
“CEA’s religious beliefs are substantially burdened by the monetary penalties it faces for refusing to violate its beliefs,” the judge ruled.
This week, attorneys for the coalition announced the Biden administration had agreed to pay $210,000 in attorney fees and costs to conclude the lawsuit.
“All employers and health care providers, including those in the Christian Employers Alliance, have the constitutionally protected freedom to conduct their business and render treatment in a manner consistent with their deeply held religious beliefs,” said ADF senior counsel Matt Bowman. “The employers we represent believe that God purposefully created humans as either male or female and so it would violate their religious beliefs to pay for or perform life-altering medical procedures or surgeries that seek to change one’s sex. We’re pleased to favorably conclude this lawsuit on behalf of our clients and hold the administration accountable for trying to force unlawful mandates that disrespect people of faith.”
Shannon Royce, president of the Christian Employers Alliance, applauded the lawsuit’s conclusion.
“We are overjoyed our members will not have to choose between the biblically based employee benefits and quality healthcare they provide, and the threat of federal enforcement and massive costs for practicing their faith,” Royce said.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Win McNamee/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.