Opinion ID: 2040077
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Three-part Factors of Constitutional Analysis

Text: The state acknowledges that a three-step analysis should be undertaken when a statute is challenged as infringing upon these fundamental interests, namely: (1) whether the statute imposes a burden upon the free exercise of those rights; (2) if so, whether the imposition of that burden is justified by a compelling and overriding government interest; and (3) even so, whether the challenged statutory proscriptions are the least restrictive means to achieve the state's objectives. The function of the examiner was a schitzoid one, which accounts for the unbalanced result in this case. On the one hand, section 363.11 of the Human Rights Act, in its interpretation and application, directs that the provisions of the Act shall be construed liberally for accomplishment of the purposes thereof, and section 363.12, subd. 1, declares it to be the public policy of this state to secure for persons in this state freedom from discrimination. Responsive to that mandate upon the administrative agency  and without power to determine issues of constitutional law  the examiner, by his findings, conclusions, and orders, interpreted the statute not only in a liberal fashion but in a remarkably extravagant way. On the other hand, the three-factor constitutional analytical framework has the opposite mandate, for it imposes restrictions against intrusion upon fundamental and overriding civil liberties. The examiner acknowledged, as to the first factor, that the sincere religious beliefs of Owens were burdened by the Act, but with respect to the second and third factors, he did no more than make the uncritical declaration that the burden was justified by a compelling state interest, without less restrictive alternatives of interpretation or enforcement. The statutory and constitutional facts are not in all respects neatly separated, and they tend to coalesce. The greater the magnitude of the individual's liberty interest, the more compelling must be the state's interest sufficient to override the individual's. Similarly, the greater the individual's interest, the greater must be the state's search for less restrictive alternatives of interpretation and enforcement. Among such alternatives, constitutionally-offensive provisions of a statute may effectively be read out of the statute to save the statute or, conversely, safeguarding provisions may be read into the statute to salvage it. As we declared in State on Behalf of Forslund v. Bronson, 305 N.W.2d 748, 751 (Minn.1981): It is well established that if a statute is ambiguous, the construction which avoids constitutional conflict is preferred although such construction may be less natural. If the act is reasonably susceptible of two different constructions, one of which would render it constitutional and the other unconstitutional, we must adopt the one making it constitutional. Additionally, in the interpretation of statutes, the courts are required to discover and effectuate legislative intent, to consider objects which the legislature seeks to accomplish by the statute and the mischief sought to be remedied, and to avoid the result which would be absurd or would do violence to the language of the statute. (Citations omitted.) A pervasive issue, significant in both a statutory and constitutional sense, is both illustrative of this coalescence and important to all the employment-related complaints of discrimination: Are the statutory prohibitions uncompromisingly absolute and are the stated exceptions, particularly the general prefatory exception for a bona fide occupational qualification, just as uncompromisingly narrow? There are other general and specific exceptions that give negative answers to these really rhetorical questions: (a) A rule of reason is incorporated in section 363.03, subd. 1(2)(a), which prohibits a system of employment which unreasonably excludes a person seeking employment. (b) An exception is made by section 363.03, subds. 3 and 4, which require physical accommodations for disabled employees, if, because of size or type of operation of the employer's business or the cost of compliance, the employer would suffer a hardship. (c) An exemption from the provisions with regard to age is made by section 363.02, subd. 7, for persons in the summer youth employment program. (d) An exception is made by section 363.02, subd. 1(2), for a religious or fraternal corporation, association, or society with respect to qualifications based on religion, when religion shall be a bona fide occupational qualification for employment. (Emphasis supplied.) The examiner missed the opportunity to apply his sacred-secular dichotomy to the exception for religious and fraternal corporations, neither of which is defined in the Act. Consulting Webster's Dictionary, he narrowly defined religious corporations, associations or societies as only those whose primary purpose is ecclesiastical, which is defined as `of or relating to a church, especially as a formal and established institution' or `of or relating to the formal and established institutions or government of any religion.' [22] Based on this definition, the examiner dismissed Owens' claim for an exception, stating that the fact that Owens operates the club in a manner based on his religious convictions is incidental to the primary purpose of the business. The examiner's stated reason for rejecting Owens' claim for a religious corporation exception encounters substantial problems of inconsistency when applied to the statutory exception for fraternal corporations, associations, or societies, some of which are church related and others of which are not. Fraternal beneficiary associations are organized under Minn.Stat. ch. 64A (1984). Section 64A.02 defines such associations as: Any corporation, society, order, or voluntary association without capital stock, organized and carried on solely for the mutual benefit of its members and their beneficiaries, and not for profit, having a representative form of government, and having a lodge system with ritualistic form of work or a branch system that confines its membership to any one religious denomination, and which shall provide for payment of benefits in accordance with this chapter. But section 64A.03 provides that a ritualistic form of work or ceremony is not required where membership is confined to members of any one religious denomination. The exceptions stated in section 363.02, subd. 1, however, are not confined to the limitations of section 64A.02. A common function of fraternal benefit associations is the providing of life, accident, sickness, and disability insurance for their members (section 64A.48), but they may transform themselves into mutual life insurance companies as well (section 64A.15). They are highly regulated by the insurance commissioner with respect to policy provisions, reserve funds, and other financial matters (sections 64A.19-.43). Section 64A.44 exempts these associations from taxation under the general tax or revenue laws, except as to real estate. Some fraternal benefit associations are religion-related, such as the Catholic Aid Association and Lutheran Brotherhood; others are not, such as the Sons of Norway, the Degree of Honor Protective Association, and the Woodmen of the World Insurance Society. [23] The important point concerning the fraternal benefit associations is that they operate in the secular marketplace in competition with other insurance companies, differing only as to the character of the population from which they solicit business. It is true that they are exempt from taxation as charitable institutions, but it is equally true that not all charitable institutions are exempt from the provisions of the Human Rights Act, such as nonprofit charitable hospitals. It is true that some of the fraternal benefit associations provide financial support to churches, church-affiliated schools, and other religious institutions. It is equally true, of course, that many successful businessmen with strong religious commitment, such as Owens, give substantial support to such institutions; indeed, Owens founded and supports Chapel Hill Academy in Deephaven, Minnesota, a strongly religion-oriented elementary-secondary school. Our legislature has, in other legislation, demonstrated sensitivity to the conflict between freedom of religion and the operation of secular statutes where the potential for conflict was readily predictable, as in the case of Sunday closing laws. Unlike such statutes in other states, of which Pennsylvania was one (see Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 81 S.Ct. 1144, 6 L.Ed.2d 563 (1961)), the Minnesota statute, Minn.Stat. § 325.913(5) (1967), permitted Sunday opening for a place of business which is regularly closed on Saturday and which was actually closed all hours on the Saturday before the Sunday on which such sale of restricted items occurs. This exception, notwithstanding the state's burden of enforcement, was designed to avoid a burden upon those whose faith, like those of the Orthodox Jewish faith, requires the closing of their places of business and total abstention from all manner of work from nightfall each Friday until nightfall each Saturday. Taking note of this in State v. Target Stores, Inc., 279 Minn. 447, 459, 156 N.W.2d 908, 916-17 (1968) (although invalidating the statute on grounds of vagueness, as a denial of due process under the United States and Minnesota Constitutions), we said: The statute in this case reflects a legislative attempt to alleviate the indirect religious burden upon Sabbatarians by granting those merchants a restriction-free Sunday if they close on Saturday, while at the same time requiring no religious declaration for the exercise of that right. Our legislature, unlike the examiner, obviously did not think that religious freedom was irrelevant merely because its exercise related only to secular commercial activities. Neither was the legislature saying, as does the majority opinion, that such an exception would frustrate the statutory objectives. It would do no violence to the statute either to impose upon Owens a less restrictive definition of religious corporation or simply to extend to his business-discipleship the comparable exception granted by the statute to fraternal corporations, associations, and societies. [24] To do so would not, contrary to the majority opinion, emasculate the statute, and it is consistent with the legislature's own action in providing several exceptions to application of the statute. Not to do so, on the other hand, raises grave issues of freedom of religion and speech and, to some extent, the denial of equal protection and due process under the Minnesota Constitution. The exceptions for which I argue would be dispositive of the principal issues raised by the complaints against Owens.