Court Opinion

ID: 9403407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-06-21 00:00:36.79184+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:06.704299
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-10145      Document: 00516793373         Page: 1     Date Filed: 06/20/2023

            United States Court of Appeals
                 for the Fifth Circuit                                   United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                  Fifth Circuit
                                 ____________                                   FILED
                                                                             June 20, 2023
                                   No. 22-10145
                                 ____________                                Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                                  Clerk
   Braidwood Management, Incorporated,
   on behalf of itself and others similarly situated;
   Bear Creek Bible Church,

                                                             Plaintiffs–Appellants
                                                                  Cross-Appellees,

                                       versus

   Equal Employment Opportunity Commission;
   United States of America; Charlotte A. Burrows;
   Jocelyn Samuels; Janet Dhillon; Andrea R. Lucas;
   Keith E. Sonderling,
   in their official capacities as chair, vice-chair, and commissioners of
   the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission;
   Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General,

                                             Defendants–Appellees
                                                Cross-Appellants.
                   ______________________________

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Northern District of Texas
                             USDC No. 4:18-CV-824
                   ______________________________

   Before Smith, Clement, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
   Jerry E. Smith, Circuit Judge:
          In Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731, 1740–41, 1743 (2020),
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                                    No. 22-10145

   the Court determined that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids
   employers from discriminating against homosexuals and transgender per-
   sons, holding that such discrimination is “on the basis of sex.” Yet the Court
   punted on how religious liberties would be affected by its ruling and on the
   practical scope of the Title VII protections afforded by Bostock. Instead, the
   Court identified three potential avenues of legal recourse for religious and
   faith-based employers to shield themselves from any potential infringement
   of their religious rights. The avenues were Title VII’s religious exception,
   42 U.S.C. § 2000e–1(a), the ministerial exception of the First Amendment,
   and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (“RFRA”), 42 U.S.C.
   §§ 2000bb–2000bb-4. Bostock, 140 S. Ct. at 1754.
          In expanding discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include sexual
   orientation and concepts of gender identity such as transgenderism, the Bos-
   tock Court gave little guidance on how courts should apply those defenses and
   exemptions to religious employers. Addressing those issues of first impres-
   sion, we affirm in large part, reverse in part, and remand.

                                         I.
                                         A.
          This is a suit by two Texas employers: Braidwood Management, Inc.
   (“Braidwood”), and Bear Creek Bible Church (“Bear Creek”). Braidwood
   is a management company that employs the workers of Hotze Health & Well-
   ness Center, Hotze Vitamins, and Physicians Preference Pharmacy Interna-
   tional LLC. Steven Hotze controls or owns the business entities and is the
   sole trustee and beneficiary of the trust that owns Braidwood. He is also the
   sole board member of Braidwood, serving as President, Secretary, and Treas-
   urer. Braidwood has close to seventy employees who work at those entities.
          Hotze runs his corporations as “Christian” businesses—to-wit, he
   does not permit Braidwood to employ individuals who engage in behavior he

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   considers sexually immoral or gender non-conforming, nor does he allow
   Braidwood to recognize homosexual marriage. To Hotze, that would “lend
   approval to homosexual behavior and make him complicit in sin.” Hotze also
   gives a nonreligious reason for refusing to recognize same-sex marriage: He
   will not allow Braidwood to recognize same-sex marriage because Texas con-
   tinues to define marriage in heterosexual terms.
          Braidwood enforces a sex-specific dress code that disallows gender-
   non-conforming behavior. For example, “biological” men must wear profes-
   sional attire, including a tie, if they have contact with customers. On the
   other hand, “biological” women may not wear a tie but may wear skirts,
   blouses, shoes with heels, and fingernail polish; men are forbidden from
   wearing those accessories, because “cross-dressing” is strictly forbidden.
   Hotze also does not countenance Braidwood employees’ using a restroom
   opposite their biological sex, regardless of any asserted gender identity.
   There is no record evidence of any job applicant or employee of Braidwood
   who has claimed he was discriminated against under these policies.
          Bear Creek is a nondenominational church whose bylaws state that
   “marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic
   female.” Accordingly, the church requires its employees to live according to
   its professed views on Biblical teaching. To that end, Bear Creek will not hire
   “practicing homosexuals, bisexuals, crossdressers, or transgender or gender
   non-conforming individuals.” The church asserts that any employee who
   enters into a homosexual marriage will be fired. Bear Creek, like Braidwood,
   requires each employee to use the restroom of his or her biological sex. Bear
   Creek has over fifteen employees, some of whom are non-ministerial, and so
   is subject to Title VII. Finally, Bear Creek also asserts that it is compelled to
   obey civil authorities per Biblical teachings.
          The church avers that it employed three persons who participated in

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   conduct that it considered immoral and against its religious values, but Bear
   Creek never fired any of them based on its values. The first was a homosexual
   pedophile caught molesting children after he left Bear Creek’s employment.
   The second was dismissed for poor performance, and only after dismissal did
   Bear Creek discover the former employee was gay. The third engaged in
   cross-dressing but voluntarily left before Bear Creek took any employment
   action. Two of the three were pastors. The other was an administrative staff
   member.
          As per their closely held religious beliefs, Braidwood and Bear Creek
   assert that Title VII, as interpreted in the EEOC’s guidance and Bostock,
   prevents them from operating their places of employment in a way compati-
   ble with their Christian beliefs. These two plaintiffs have implicitly asserted
   that they will not alter or discontinue their employment practices. And all
   parties admitted in district court that numerous policies promulgated by
   plaintiffs (such as those about dress codes and segregating bathroom usage
   by solely biological sex) already clearly violate EEOC guidance. Both plain-
   tiffs also contend that they are focused on individuals’ behavior, not their
   asserted identity. Thus, for example, plaintiffs will hire homosexual employ-
   ees who follow their code of sexual conduct. Although the EEOC has not
   brought an enforcement action against either party, it has not forsworn or
   disclaimed its willingness to bring an enforcement action against plaintiffs or
   other similarly-situated members of their proposed classes.
                                         B.
          Title VII forbids employers from “discriminat[ing] against any indi-
   vidual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of
   employment, because of such individual’s . . . sex.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-
   2(a)(1). The act also prohibits an employer from “limit[ing], segregat[ing],
   or classify[ing] . . . employees or applicants for employment in any way which
   would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities

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   or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such
   individual’s . . . sex.” Id. § 2000e-2(a)(2). Either the EEOC or an affected
   employee (if the EEOC declines to act) is statutorily authorized to bring an
   enforcement action. Id. § 2000e-5(f)(1).
           The EEOC has not historically enforced Title VII’s prohibitions
   against religious entities’ engaging in potential discrimination against homo-
   sexuals and gender non-conformists. In one case, however, the EEOC
   brought an enforcement action against an avowedly Christian funeral home
   that prohibited a biological male from cross-dressing per the employee’s
   claimed gender identity as female. 1 Despite the employer’s sincere religious
   objections to gender-non-conforming conduct, see 884 F.3d at 567, the EEOC
   took the position that the employer’s RFRA defense was invalid, see
   id. at 585. 2
           Still, most Title VII suits are brought by employees, not the EEOC.
   Moreover, the EEOC alleges that it counsels its investigators to respect
   employers’ religious liberties when deciding whether to bring an enforce-
   ment action; it has a guidance manual that instructs its investigators on
   addressing potential religious-discrimination issues.
           _____________________
           1
             EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc., 884 F.3d 560 (6th Cir. 2018),
   aff’d sub nom. Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020).
           2
              In the Sixth Circuit, the EEOC prevailed, as the court held that Title VII did not
   substantially burden the employer’s religious practice and was the least restrictive method
   to further the government’s compelling interest. 884 F.3d at 585–95. The court rejected
   the employer’s claim that employing a transgender person would burden its religious
   practice. The court dismissed the position that the presence of the transgender employee
   would “present a distraction that will obstruct [the defendant’s] ability to serve grieving
   families” and that purchasing female attire for the employee would subsidize the employ-
   ee’s claimed gender identity. Id. at 586–87. Harris was consolidated with Bostock at the
   Supreme Court. The EEOC asserts that the funeral home did not articulate its religious
   liberty concerns until well after the enforcement action was initiated, eight months into
   litigation.

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           But even before Bostock, the EEOC interpreted statutory prohibitions
   on sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. 3 The
   EEOC has stated that employers must treat homosexual marriage as the same
   as heterosexual marriage, and bathroom policy should be dictated by an em-
   ployee’s asserted gender identity as distinguished from his or her biological
   sex. 4 The EEOC has no official guidance indicating any exemptions for
   employers that oppose homosexual or transgender behavior on religious
   grounds.
           Then in Bostock, 140 S. Ct. at 1740–41, the Court ruled that discrim-
   ination based on sexual orientation or transgender status is discrimination
   “because of sex” and thus falls within the ambit of Title VII. The Court
   explained that an employer that fires an employee for conduct or attributes it
   would permit in a member of the other biological sex makes sex the “but-for
   cause” of the termination, violating Title VII. Id. That said, an employer
   would not violate Title VII if it takes adverse employment action against an
   employee for conduct or attributes that it would tolerate in neither sex. Id.
   at 1742.
           Still, Bostock is delphic, with a nebulous description of the scope of its
   ruling. For example, the Court recognized that “[b]ecause RFRA operates
   as a kind of super statute, displacing the normal operation of other federal
   laws, it might supersede Title VII’s commands in appropriate cases.” Id.
   at 1754. But the Court declined to expound on what that might mean in

           _____________________
           3
              See Baldwin v. Foxx, EEOC Appeal No. 0120133080, 2015 WL 4397641, at *10
   (July 15, 2015); see also Macy v. Holder, EEOC Appeal No. 0120120821, 2012 WL 1435995,
   at *5 (Apr. 20, 2012).
           4
             See Lusardi v. McHugh, EEOC Appeal No. 0120133395, 2015 WL 1607756, at *10
   (Apr. 1, 2015). The EEOC’s brief stated that it “has understood Title VII to prohibit dis-
   crimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity for almost a decade.”

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                                     No. 22-10145

   practice or how the Court would “address bathrooms, locker rooms, or any-
   thing else of the kind.” Id. at 1753.

                                           C.
          Plaintiffs sued the EEOC and related governmental defendants (col-
   lectively, “the EEOC”) in 2018, seeking declaratory judgments. The district
   court stayed proceedings pending the resolution of Bostock, and post-Bostock,
   plaintiffs amended their complaint to seek a declaratory judgment on the fol-
   lowing five statements (some capitalization altered):
      1. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act compels exemptions to Bos-
         tock’s interpretation of Title VII (“RFRA claim”);
      2. The Free-Exercise Clause compels exemptions to Bostock’s interpre-
         tation of Title VII (“free exercise claim”);
      3. The First Amendment right of expressive association compels exemp-
         tions to Bostock’s interpretation of Title VII (“expressive association
         claim”);
      4. Title VII, as interpreted in Bostock, does not prohibit discrimination
         against bisexual employees (“bisexual orientation claim”);
      5. Title VII, as interpreted in Bostock, does not prohibit employers from
         establishing sex-neutral rules of conduct that exclude practicing
         homosexuals and transgender people from employment (“sex-neutral
         rules of conduct claim”).
          In addition to bringing claims on behalf of themselves, plaintiffs
   moved to certify two classes: all employers that oppose homosexual or trans-
   gender behavior for sincere religious reasons and all employers that oppose
   homosexual or transgender behavior for religious or nonreligious reasons. All
   claims are asserted on behalf of the sincere-religious-objector class, but only
   claims 3–5 are asserted on behalf of the nonreligious-objector class.
          The EEOC moved for summary judgment based on standing, ripe-

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   ness, and sovereign immunity. 5 It also moved for summary judgment on
   substantive grounds, averring that it did not violate plaintiffs’ religious rights
   and that Bostock prohibits the policies on which plaintiffs want declaratory
   relief. Plaintiffs similarly sought summary judgment on substantive grounds.

                                                D.
           The district court, in pertinent part, initially denied the EEOC’s
   motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, 6 ruling that plaintiffs had estab-
   lished a “credible fear” of EEOC enforcement, conferring Article III stand-
   ing. The court separately held that plaintiffs’ claims were ripe because the
   issues presented were purely legal with no need for further factual develop-
   ment. The court held that waiting and withholding review would force plain-
   tiffs between Scylla and Charybdis: Violate either Title VII and EEOC guid-
   ance or violate their sincere religious beliefs. See Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U.S.
   452, 462 (1974).
           Next, the court modified the classes that plaintiffs moved to certify.
   First, the court certified a religious-business-type employers’ class for all of
   Braidwood’s claims. 7 Then the claims of Bear Creek were separated into a
   church-type employers’ class, which the court held was statutorily exempt

           _____________________
           5
               The EEOC is not pursuing the sovereign-immunity defense on appeal.
           6
              The district court had previously ruled that plaintiffs did not have standing to sue
   the Attorney General and granted the EEOC’s motion to dismiss those claims. After
   plaintiffs amended their complaint to reassert claims against the Attorney General, the
   district court again ruled that plaintiffs did not have standing to sue the Attorney General
   and dismissed all claims against him. Plaintiffs do not appeal that decision.
           7
              The class appears to comprise “for-profit entities producing a secular product.
   While faith may be a motivating part of the businesses’ missions, their incorporating docu-
   ments generally do not include a religious purpose. For an employer like Braidwood,
   religion plays an important role but is not the sole mission of the organization.” Note that
   this class definition does not reference opposing homosexual or transgender behavior.

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                                           No. 22-10145

   from Title VII. The court declined to certify that class and entered judgment
   against Bear Creek. 8 Finally, the court accepted plaintiffs’ proposed class
   definition for an “All Opposing Employers Class,” defined as “every em-
   ployer in the United States that opposes homosexual or transgender behavior
   for religious or nonreligious reasons.” That class was certified only for
   claims 4 and 5.
          On the merits, the court granted summary judgment in favor of the
   religious-business-type employer class for claims 1–3: The court ruled that
   the class was protected under RFRA and the First Amendment. For the
   RFRA claim, the court determined that Title VII substantially burdened the
   class members. Next, the court decided that the EEOC did not have a com-
   pelling interest in failing to provide a religious exemption to all class mem-
   bers. Moreover, the EEOC had not selected the least restrictive means to
   further any compelling interest.
          For the free exercise claim, the district court ruled that Title VII is not
   a generally applicable statute because it has individualized exemptions. 9
   Thus, strict scrutiny applies. Next, relying on Fulton v. City of Philadelphia,
   141 S. Ct. 1868 (2021), and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682
   (2014), the court concluded that the EEOC had not shown a compelling
   interest in light of the exemption system, which undermined the EEOC’s
   contention that all discrimination had to be eliminated under Title VII.
   Again, in the alternative, Title VII was not sufficiently narrowly tailored.
          Relying on Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000), the

          _____________________
          8
              We interpret the district court to apply this holding only to Bear Creek.
          9
              Although the court acknowledged the EEOC’s argument that it should avoid
   adjudicating the constitutional grounds if relief was granted on statutory grounds, the
   court, as a matter of judicial economy, continued its analysis anyway.

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                                          No. 22-10145

   district court ruled that the members of the religious-business-type-
   employers class engaged in expressive association and therefore had a right
   not to associate with persons engaging in homosexual or transgender con-
   duct. Again, the court held that the EEOC had failed to show a compelling
   interest that would defeat the associational right.
           Additionally, the court determined, as a matter of law, that the sex-
   neutral policies of both classes pertaining to sexual conduct, dress codes, and
   bathrooms did not violate Title VII. Those policies applied equally to both
   sexes. On the other hand, the court granted summary judgment in the
   EEOC’s favor on the entirety of claim 4 regarding bisexual orientation and
   employer policies regulating sex-reassignment surgery and hormone treat-
   ment for claim 5. 10
           The court then separately denied plaintiffs’ motion to alter or amend
   the final judgments in pertinent part. Both plaintiffs and the EEOC timely
   appealed.

                                                II.
           We review issues of Article III standing and ripeness de novo. Conten-
   der Farms, L.L.P. v. U.S. Dep’t of Agric., 779 F.3d 258, 264 (5th Cir. 2015).
   We consider a summary judgment de novo as well. Norman v. Apache Corp.,
   19 F.3d 1017, 1021 (5th Cir. 1994). We review de novo whether the district
   court applied the correct legal standard in its decision on class certification.
   Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Credit Suisse First Bos. (USA), Inc., 482 F.3d 372,
   380 (5th Cir. 2007). But the decision to certify a class is reviewed for abuse
   of discretion. Pederson v. La. State Univ., 213 F.3d 858, 866 (5th Cir. 2000).
   “Where a district court premises its legal analysis on an erroneous under-
           _____________________
           10
              The EEOC argues that the district court failed to address its argument that plain-
   tiffs did not identify a cause of action for claims 4–5.

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                                       No. 22-10145

   standing of governing law, it has abused its discretion.” Regents, 482 F.3d
   at 380.
             Where, as here, issues of both Article III jurisdiction and class certi-
   fication are presented, we usually answer class-certification issues first, as
   they are “logically antecedent” to Article III justiciability concerns and often
   implicate statutory standing. Pederson, 213 F.3d at 866 n.5 (quoting Ortiz v.
   Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 831 (1999)). The district court and the parties
   have chosen to address Article III standing concerns before discussing class
   certification.     Because the class-certification issue is not outcome-
   determinative, we do the same.

                                           III.
             To begin, plaintiffs’ claims are justiciable. Despite the EEOC’s pro-
   testations that no one has brought a Title VII enforcement action against
   these plaintiffs, the plaintiffs have established a credible fear of such an action
   sufficient to establish standing. The case is ripe because no further facts are
   required to adjudicate plaintiffs’ specific claims, and there is a hardship to
   them in withholding judgment. Finally, plaintiffs have a valid cause of action.

                                            A.
             The EEOC spends a tremendous amount of briefing arguing that the
   district court issued an impermissible advisory opinion. The EEOC proffers
   a smorgasbord of potential faults with the court’s standing analysis, the most
   compelling being that the EEOC has not undertaken any enforcement action
   against plaintiffs and that plaintiffs have not suffered any harm nor any credi-
   ble threat of harm from the EEOC’s guidance. True, the line between a de-
   claratory judgment and an advisory opinion is fine, and classifying this case
   requires us to run headlong into the ongoing battle over standing. But we
   must ignore the tempting feast of fallacies that the EEOC offers to stray from
   our “‘virtually unflagging obligation’ to hear and decide a case” within our

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                                          No. 22-10145

   jurisdiction. 11
           Standing is a constitutional requirement. Article III limits the federal
   judiciary to the resolution of “Cases” and “Controversies.” 12 On the other
   hand, courts are law-declaring institutions. “Rudimentary justice requires
   that those subject to the law must have the means of knowing what it pre-
   scribes . . . . [O]ne of emperor Nero’s nasty practices was to post his edicts
   high on the columns so that they would be harder to read and easier to trans-
   gress.” 13 Jurisdictional obtuseness leads to despotism. And ubi jus ibi
   remedium. 14
           Yet “[f]ederal courts do not possess a roving commission to publicly
   opine on every legal question . . . . [F]ederal courts do not issue advisory
   opinions.” TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190, 2203 (2021). There
   is no “unqualified right to pre-enforcement review,” even for claims raising
   fundamental constitutional rights.            Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson,
   142 S. Ct. 522, 537–38 (2021). So, to establish standing, plaintiffs have the
   burden to demonstrate (1) that they have suffered an injury, (2) “fairly trace-
   able to the defendant’s allegedly unlawful conduct,” and (3) “likely to be
   redressed by the requested relief.” California v. Texas, 141 S. Ct. 2104, 2113
           _____________________
           11
            Sprint Commc’ns, Inc. v. Jacobs, 571 U.S. 69, 77 (2013) (quoting Colo. River Water
   Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 817 (1976)).
           12
             U.S. Const. art. III, § 2. “That a suit may be a class action . . . adds nothing
   to the question of standing, for even named plaintiffs who represent a class ‘must allege
   and show that they personally have been injured, not that injury has been suffered by other,
   unidentified members of the class to which they belong and which they purport to repre-
   sent.’” Simon v. E. Ky. Welfare Rts. Org., 426 U.S. 26, 40 n.20 (1976) (quoting Warth v.
   Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 502 (1975)).
           13
             Antonin Scalia, The Rule of Law as a Law of Rules, 56 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1175,
   1179 (1989).
           14
              Where there is a right, there is a remedy. Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch)
   137, 163 (1803) (quoting 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries *23).

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   (2021) (quoting DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno, 547 U.S. 332, 342 (2006)).
           The disputed prong here is injury. Any injury to plaintiffs must be
   “concrete and particularized” and “actual or imminent.” Lujan v. Defs. of
   Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560 (1992) (internal quotations removed). The EEOC
   accurately notes that it has taken no enforcement action against these plain-
   tiffs. And plaintiffs do not allege that they are aware of any applicants or
   current employees engaged in “homosexual or transgender behavior” or that
   they have taken any adverse employment action that could violate Bostock’s
   interpretation of Title VII. Thus, the EEOC says there is no standing.
           Additionally, a plaintiff can demonstrate a cognizable injury in a pre-
   enforcement challenge only if it establishes that (1) it has “an intention to
   engage in a course of conduct arguably affected with a constitutional interest,
   but proscribed by a statute,” and (2) “there exists a credible threat of prose-
   cution thereunder.” 15 Plaintiffs allege the credible threat is the in terrorem
   effects from the EEOC’s guidance documents and its previous lawsuit
   against a religious employer in Harris. 16 Both conjointly present a credible
   threat that Bear Creek and Braidwood will face enforcement actions for oper-
   ating their places of employment in accordance with their faith. No party
   truly contests the facts, which indicate that plaintiffs’ employment policies
   facially violate the EEOC’s guidance, though they have not been actuated
   against any specific individual. Still, plaintiffs allege that, to establish stand-
   ing, they are not required to violate the law and expose themselves to poten-
   tial penalties—they merely need to show that this credible threat or well-
   founded fear exists.

           _____________________
           15
             Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, 573 U.S. 149, 159 (2014) (quoting Babbitt v.
   United Farm Workers Nat’l Union, 442 U.S. 289, 298 (1979)). Prong one is not in question.
           16
                See supra note 2.

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           Plaintiffs point to numerous cases in which courts have allowed pre-
   enforcement actions to proceed. 17 For example, though Lopez v. Candaele is
   not controlling on this court, plaintiffs advance its theory of standing, namely,
   “a threat of government prosecution is credible if . . . there is a ‘history of
   past prosecution or enforcement under the challenged statute.’” 18 Further,
   in each of the listed cases, courts allowed litigation to proceed based on a
   credible-threat analysis without a showing of specific targeting.
           On the other hand, the EEOC denies the existence of any such credi-

           _____________________
           17
               The most prevalent are Susan B. Anthony, 573 U.S. at 158–61 (holding that a state
   government’s credible threat of prosecting the plaintiffs under a statute criminalizing false
   statements about candidates during a political campaign established standing in a facial pre-
   enforcement challenge); Virginia v. Am. Booksellers Ass’n, Inc., 484 U.S. 383, 391–93 (1988)
   (permitting a pre-enforcement suit by booksellers against a law prohibiting the commercial
   display of sexual or sadomasochistic material “harmful to juveniles” because the book-
   sellers alleged an actual and well-founded fear of enforcement and there was a danger of
   self-censorship); Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 188 (1973), abrogated on other grounds by Dobbs
   v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022) (permitting a facial challenge to a
   Georgia abortion law because there was a credible threat that the statute would be enforced
   and was not moribund); Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914, 945–46 (2000) (allowing a pre-
   enforcement challenge to an abortion statute when there was a possibility of future prose-
   cution under the statute); Speech First, Inc. v. Fenves, 979 F.3d 319, 336 (5th Cir. 2020)
   (holding in a facial challenge to a free-speech regulation that plaintiffs had established
   standing even though it was stipulated that the regulations would not be directed at plain-
   tiffs specifically); accord Telescope Media Grp. v. Lucero, 936 F.3d 740, 749–50 (8th Cir.
   2019) (allowing a pre-enforcement, as-applied challenge to continue because Minnesota
   had publicly announced an intent to enforce its statute forcing wedding vendors to service
   homosexual and heterosexual marriages equally and had previously enforced the act against
   a non-compliant wedding vendor).
           18
             Lopez v. Candaele, 630 F.3d 775, 786 (9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Thomas v. Anchorage
   Equal Rts. Comm’n, 220 F.3d 1134, 1139 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc)). See also Holder v.
   Humanitarian L. Project, 561 U.S. 1, 15–16 (2010) (permitting pre-enforcement review of a
   criminal statute because plaintiffs alleged they had performed now-prosecuted activities
   before the enactment of the challenged statute, the Attorney General had prosecuted cases
   under the statute involving the statutory terms at issue, and the government did not affirm-
   atively declare it would not prosecute the plaintiffs).

                                                14
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                                        No. 22-10145

   ble threat. It notes that before an EEOC enforcement action can proceed,
   (1) a plaintiff must employ or receive an application from an individual
   against whom it would subject to what the EEOC considers an adverse
   employment action; (2) the plaintiff must subject the employee to an adverse
   employment action; (3) the employee would have to file a charge with the
   EEOC, and finally, (4) the EEOC would have to exercise its discretion to
   pursue said action. The EEOC states that this turn of events is highly specu-
   lative and not concrete, and plaintiffs, especially Braidwood, have provided
   no evidence that they have ever received an application from a protected
   party. Moreover, a general fear of prosecution “cannot substitute for the
   presence of an imminent, non-speculative irreparable injury.” Google, Inc. v.
   Hood, 822 F.3d 212, 228 (5th Cir. 2016).
           On this point, the EEOC alleges it has no history of taking adverse
   actions against parties like these plaintiffs. Indeed, the EEOC shows some
   evidence that it takes religious defenses seriously. 19 The EEOC emphasizes
   that Braidwood and Bear Creek can point to only one case—Harris—in
   which it took the position that a particular employer’s RFRA defense was
   invalid. The EEOC indicates that that one case is not a strong enough foun-
   dation to hoist the flag of standing.
           The EEOC also stresses the posture of this case, which is an as-
   applied pre-enforcement challenge to how RFRA interacts with Title VII and
   Bostock, as distinguished from a facial challenge. In assessing standing to
   bring pre-enforcement suits, “[t]he distinction between facial and as-applied

           _____________________
           19
              See Newsome v. EEOC, 301 F.3d 227, 229–30 (5th Cir. 2002) (per curiam) (noting
   that the EEOC dismissed a charge where the employer offered evidence it fell under the
   religious-organization exception). See also EEOC Compliance Manual on Religious
   Discrimination § 12-I(C)(3) (Jan. 15, 2021), https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/sectio
   n-12-religious-discrimination.

                                              15
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                                          No. 22-10145

   challenges bears legal significance.” 20
           Ultimately, though, plaintiffs have the better argument. To under-
   stand why, we must review the point of a declaratory judgment. In Steffel v.
   Thompson, 415 U.S. 452, 475 (1974), the Court allowed the petitioner, whom
   the state police had threatened with arrest if he did not stop distributing anti-
   Vietnam War handbills outside a mall, to seek declaratory relief. To raise a
   constitutional challenge, the petitioner did not need to break the law and
   thereby expose himself to liability. Instead, he merely needed to show a
   “genuine threat” of enforcement. Id. Indeed, “‘[t]he purpose of the Declar-
   atory Judgment Act is to settle “actual controversies” before they ripen into
   violations of law or breach of some contractual duty.’” 21
           Plaintiffs’ credible-threat analysis is quite simple. First, they admit
   they are breaking EEOC guidance, which the EEOC does not seriously con-
   test. They posit statutory and constitutional issues with the laws under which
   they are at risk of being prosecuted: Those issues, they allege, are already
   forcing plaintiffs to choose either to restrict their religious practices or to risk
   potential penalties. And the EEOC’s actions in Harris, which the EEOC won
   under a less violative set of facts, indicate that plaintiffs, too, have a legitimate
   fear of prosecution, chilling their rights. “The loss of First Amendment free-
   doms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irrepa-
   rable injury.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373 (1976) (plurality opinion).
   Finally, the EEOC refuses to declare affirmatively that it will not enforce
   Title VII against the plaintiffs’ policies on homosexual and transgender
   behavior.
           _____________________
           20
               Fenves, 979 F.3d at 334–35 (alteration in original) (quoting Speech First, Inc. v.
   Schlissel, 939 F.3d 756, 766 (6th Cir. 2019)).
           21
             Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Traillour Oil Co., 987 F.2d 1138, 1154 (5th Cir. 1993)
   (quoting Hardware Mut. Cas. Co. v. Schantz, 178 F.2d 779, 780 (5th Cir. 1949)).

                                                16
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                                          No. 22-10145

           The EEOC responds that one action is not a history of enforcement. 22
   But one case, especially one landmark case, such as Bostock, into which Harris
   was subsumed, can be considered a history of enforcement, even if the facts
   would not be precisely the same as in an action against Braidwood and Bear
   Creek. Bostock and Harris readily establish a credible threat to Braidwood’s
   and Bear Creek’s current practices. That is sufficient. 23
           Plaintiffs’ policies mirror and, in many respects, go further than those
   of the employer in Harris. Thus, Harris shows that the EEOC may actively
   enforce Title VII in situations like plaintiffs’. Plaintiffs are justified in be-
   lieving that Harris was a clear shot across the bow against their practices
   regarding homosexual and transgender employees.

           _____________________
           22
             The EEOC further posits that Harris should not even be considered because the
   funeral home did not articulate its religious-liberty concerns immediately after the enforce-
   ment action was initiated. We can accept this as true and still acknowledge that Harris
   shows that the EEOC will litigate enforcement actions pertaining to Title VII and RFRA.
           23
               A case in the Tenth Circuit was decided on similar grounds. 303 Creative LLC
   v. Elenis, 6 F.4th 1160 (10th Cir. 2021), cert. granted in part, 142 S. Ct. 1106 (2022). The
   plaintiff (303 Creative) brought a pre-enforcement challenge against the Colorado Anti-
   Discrimination Act (“CADA”) on free speech and free exercise grounds. Id. at 1168.
   303 Creative alleged that it would refuse to make websites for same-sex marriages in viola-
   tion of CADA. Id. at 1168–70. The Tenth Circuit found that the plaintiff showed a credible
   threat of enforcement based on this averred refusal. The first factor was that the refusal
   exposed 303 Creative to CADA liability. The second factor was Colorado’s history of
   CADA enforcement, as displayed in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights
   Commission, 138 S. Ct. 1719 (2018). Id. at 1172–74.
            As a point of emphasis here, 303 Creative was able to establish standing and a cred-
   ible threat of enforcement despite not even presently offering wedding websites: It only
   averred that it intended to do so in the future. Id. at 1172. In contrast, Bear Creek and
   Braidwood are longstanding employers currently subject to Title VII.
            Although the case is currently before the Supreme Court, the standing analysis is
   not the question presented for review. See 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, 142 S. Ct. 1106
   (2022) (granting certiorari on “[w]hether applying a public-accommodation law to compel
   an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”).

                                                17
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                                           No. 22-10145

           The EEOC claims that all Harris establishes is that “RFRA defenses
   to Title VII enforcement can present difficult, fact-intensive questions that
   cannot be categorically resolved ahead of time in the abstract. The only thing
   that can be said with certainty at this time is that RFRA may provide a defense
   to a Title VII enforcement action and that [the] EEOC should take RFRA’s
   requirements seriously.”
           That claim is coy at best and tenuous, especially after the EEOC
   acknowledges how favorable Harris was to it. 24 Plaintiffs are reasonably wor-
   ried about the implications of that case on their practices. They are entitled
   to receive clarification from this court before stifling their constitutional prac-
   tices or otherwise exposing themselves to punishment or enforcement action.
   That is a core purpose of a declaratory judgment.
           What is more, Congress did not explicitly give the EEOC substantive
   rulemaking authority. 25 That fact makes us even charier of granting the
   EEOC a blank check to issue guidance backed by the threat of an enforcement
   action without allowing employers to protect their own rights in response.
           Nor is this court required to plug its ears and ignore Bostock’s siren
   call, 26 indicating the issues presented by this case require attention and have
   a chilling effect on employers whose religious exercises, until resolved, con-

           _____________________
           24
            In its briefing, the EEOC states that “[t]he Sixth Circuit unanimously held that
   the employer’s RFRA defense [in Harris] failed at three critical steps—substantial burden,
   compelling interest, and narrow tailoring.”
           25
              See Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 433–34 (1971); see also Gen. Elec. Co.
   v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 140–41 (1976) superseded by statute on other grounds, Pregnancy
   Discrimination Act, Pub. L. No. 95–555, 92 Stat. 2076, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k) (1981)
   (“Congress, in enacting Title VII, did not confer upon the EEOC authority to promulgate
   rules or regulations pursuant to that Title.”).
           26
               See, e.g., Bostock, 140 S. Ct. at 1754 (“[H]ow . . . doctrines protecting religious
   liberty interact with Title VII are questions for future cases . . . .”).

                                                 18
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                                    No. 22-10145

   flict with Title VII. Without resolution, potential penalties hang over plain-
   tiffs’ heads like Damocles’s sword.
          The EEOC’s attempts to distinguish plaintiffs’ proffered cases are
   also not persuasive. Most notably, the EEOC goes through the many points
   made by the Supreme Court in finding standing in Susan B. Anthony. There,
   the state commission already had found against the Susan B. Anthony List in
   a probable-cause hearing, 573 U.S. at 162, and the organization brought a
   facial, pre-enforcement challenge only after the complaint against it had been
   withdrawn, see id. at 154–55; 164. Moreover, the commission litigated 20 to
   80 of those cases yearly. Id. at 164. All of those factors indicated that the
   threat of future enforcement was sufficient to justify the pre-enforcement
   challenge. Id. at 164–65. The EEOC posits that such a cavalcade is required
   to bring an action.
          But that is not accurate. In reality, Susan B. Anthony treated the threat
   of future enforcement as case- and fact-specific, understanding that evaluat-
   ing threats against our most cherished rights cannot be neatly reduced to a
   rigid formula. See id. at 161–66. Different factors are weighed accordingly
   per the case-specific facts. As the Eighth Circuit has noted, even a “public[]
   announce[ment]” to enforce a statute and one prior proceeding are sufficient
   for standing. See Lucero, 936 F.3d at 749–50. Through Harris and the
   credible threat of enforcement, plaintiffs have shown that that standard is
   met for the specific claims Braidwood and Bear Creek bring.
          The EEOC also makes much of the distinction between an as-applied
   challenge (as brought here) and a facial challenge. The agency accurately
   notes that most of plaintiffs’ best cases about standing involve facial chal-
   lenges, not the as-applied challenge that plaintiffs bring now. Nevertheless,
   the EEOC makes too much of this distinction, which is largely without dif-
   ference here.

                                         19
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                                      No. 22-10145

          The rule, as the EEOC notes, is that for an as-applied challenge,
   “[t]here must be some evidence that [a] rule would be applied to the plaintiff
   in order for that plaintiff to bring an as-applied challenge.” Fenves, 979 F.3d
   at 335 (quoting Schlissel, 939 F.3d at 766) (alterations in original). But the
   EEOC has not explained how, in practice, that requirement is any more oner-
   ous than is the credible-threat analysis.
          That is because our caselaw indicates that “adjudicating whether fed-
   eral law would allow an enforcement action” might require courts to adjudi-
   cate “‘hypothetical situations.’” Hood, 822 F.3d at 227 (quoting Morales v.
   Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U.S. 374, 382 (1992)). Whereas facial chal-
   lenges can result in broad statements about the constitutionality of laws, as-
   applied challenges in a pre-enforcement posture, if applied inappositely,
   likely create a patchwork of exceptions and poorly reasoned legal standards
   covering a “fuzzily defined range of enforcement actions that do not appear
   imminent.” Id.
          The main problem with the EEOC’s hanging its hat on that argument
   is that the agency refuses to provide a single additional fact that would be
   required to adjudicate the present action. For example, the EEOC points to
   Hood to support the contention that plaintiffs’ case requires hypothetical and
   speculative facts to determine the legal claims before us. Yet Hood involved
   Google’s asking for a declaratory judgment stating that Mississippi’s attor-
   ney general could not enforce an administrative subpoena against it and pro-
   secute it for publishing certain information that Mississippi considered dan-
   gerous and criminal. Id. at 216.
          In Hood, our court held that allowing a preliminary injunction and
   declaratory relief was too speculative because, to rule on the matter properly,
   any decision would be overly reliant on information not before the court. Id.
   at 227. The court did not know what published information the attorney gen-

                                          20
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                                          No. 22-10145

   eral might one day try to prosecute under state law. Id. at 227–28. Moreover,
   the administrative subpoena was “a ‘pre-litigation investigative tool’ seeking
   information on a broad variety of subject matters—ranging from alleged facil-
   itation of copyright infringement, illegal prescription drug sales, human traf-
   ficking, the sale of false identification documents, and credit card data theft.”
   Id.
           As a result, the court contrasted the hazy application of the law in
   Hood with the concrete application in Steffel, 415 U.S. at 455, in which police
   had told the plaintiff he would be prosecuted if he distributed handbills at a
   specific shopping center. In Hood, by contrast, the action was too hypothet-
   ical for adjudication.
           The fact pattern here more clearly resembles Steffel than Hood. We
   know what the EEOC says violates its guidance and the law; we know what
   Braidwood’s exact policies are; and we have admissions from the EEOC that
   Braidwood’s current practices violate Title VII. Per Harris, we have evi-
   dence that the EEOC has brought an enforcement action against a similar
   violator. No party contests the facts or requests additional information to be
   presented to the court. There is remarkably little else needed to adjudicate
   the issue. 27
           The EEOC brings up two additional cases, attempting to demonstrate
   the inappropriateness of adjudicating the merits in a pre-enforcement con-

           _____________________
           27
              Although standing doctrine is, in many ways, intended to avoid judicial resolu-
   tion of cases in which prosecutorial discretion is an alternate solution, the credible-threat
   analysis here indicates that plaintiffs have overcome that barrier. Not every case in which
   a governmental authority has so far chosen not to prosecute can overcome the standing
   barrier. But here, there are sufficiently concrete facts, clear harms hanging over plaintiffs’
   heads, and a prior prosecution with an almost identical set of facts. There is harm in being
   “force[d] . . . to modify [one’s] behavior in order to avoid future adverse consequences.”
   Ohio Forestry Ass’n, Inc. v. Sierra Club, 523 U.S. 726, 734 (1998).

                                                21
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                                        No. 22-10145

   text. It argues that we should, instead, require the plaintiffs to raise any
   RFRA or constitutional claim as a defense. The first, Whole Women’s Health
   v. Jackson, 142 S. Ct. 522, 529–31 (2021), involved a novel Texas statute
   designed explicitly so that state officials had no part in enforcing the statute.
   Regardless of the merits of such jurisdictional legerdemain, the Court
   rejected various pre-enforcement challenges because there was no proper
   party for the Court to enjoin. Similarly so in the second case the EEOC relies
   on, U.S. Navy Seals 1-26 v. Biden, 27 F.4th 336 (5th Cir. 2022) (per curiam),
   preliminary injunction partially stayed sub nom. Austin v. U.S. Navy Seals 1-26,
   142 S. Ct. 1301 (2002) (mem.). That case dealt with complicated questions
   of military judgment and national security. 142 S. Ct. at 1302 (Kavanaugh,
   J., concurring).
           None of those complications is present here. Instead, we can see the
   potential harms, adjudicate on the facts presented, and grant any appropriate
   concrete relief. Although, in the employment context, RFRA-based defenses
   have often been raised after the challenged governmental activity has oc-
   curred, that does not mean they must always be. Accordingly, for the above
   reasons, these plaintiffs have demonstrated Article III standing.

                                              B.
           After standing comes ripeness. Unsurprisingly, there is a fair amount
   of overlap between Article III standing requirements and the ripeness analy-
   sis. See Texas v. United States, 497 F.3d 491, 496 (5th Cir. 2007). Regardless,
   it is unnecessary to delve deeply into the prudential roots of the ripeness doc-
   trine or into whether the analysis is required, if Article III standing exists
   separately, because plaintiffs’ claims are ripe in any event. 28
           _____________________
           28
             It remains unclear whether we can reject a claim as unripe once plaintiffs have
   established Article III standing. The Court last addressed the issue in Susan B. Anthony,
   doing so only after reviewing the bread and butter of Article III standing. The Court

                                              22
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                                           No. 22-10145

           Per Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149 (1967), abrogated
   on other grounds by Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99 (1977), a court must look
   at two factors to determine ripeness: (1) “the fitness of the issues for judicial
   decision” and (2) “the hardship to the parties of withholding court consid-
   eration.” Additionally, the ripeness doctrine exists in some tension with the
   concept of a declaratory judgment. 29 So, when a plaintiff asks for declaratory
   relief, the court must assess whether an actual or immediate controversy
   exists between the parties or whether, instead, the controversy remains
   abstract and hypothetical. 30
           We address each required prong separately. First, a claim is “fit for
   judicial decision” if it presents a pure question of law that needs no further
   factual development. See New Orleans Pub. Serv., Inc. v. Council of New Orle-
   ans, 833 F.2d 583, 586–87 (5th Cir. 1987). So, if a claim is “contingent [on]
   future events that may not occur as anticipated, or indeed may not occur at
   all,” the claim is not ripe. Thomas v. Union Carbide Agric. Prods. Co., 473 U.S.
   568, 580–81 (1985) (quotation omitted). We adjudicate the prong on a case-
   by-case basis. Orix, 212 F.3d at 896.
           The EEOC avers that this matter is not fit for consideration: It posits
   that the court should wait to evaluate the issues at play because
           whether any particular application of Title VII will run afoul of
           RFRA or the Free Exercise Clause will depend on the precise
           employment practices applied to particular individual employ-
           _____________________
   questioned the “continuing vitality of the prudential ripeness doctrine” but did not deliver
   any answers. 573 U.S. at 167.
           29
              See Orix Credit All., Inc., v. Wolfe, 212 F.3d 891, 896 (5th Cir. 2000) (“[D]eclara-
   tory actions contemplate an ex ante determination of rights that exists in some tension with
   traditional notions of ripeness” (cleaned up)).
           30
            See Choice Inc. v. Greenstein, 691 F.3d 710, 715 (5th Cir. 2012); Orix, 212 F.3d at
   896; Middle S. Energy, Inc. v. City of New Orleans, 800 F.2d 488, 490 (5th Cir. 1986).

                                                 23
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                                      No. 22-10145

          ees at issue in a given case. . . . [U]ntil [plaintiffs’] policies and
          preferences crystalize into particular employment decisions
          that violate Title VII, there is no way of assessing whether en-
          forcing Title VII as to that decision will impose a substantial bur-
          den on Braidwood, or whether the government has a compell-
          ing interest in enforcing Title VII in that particular context.
   Although Title VII discrimination claims require a fact-specific inquiry, the
   inquiry takes vastly differing forms in practice. Here, in the declaratory judg-
   ment posture, the court has sufficient facts to determine whether Braid-
   wood’s and Bear Creek’s blanket policies entitle them to declaratory relief.
   After all, the EEOC has already admitted that the specific policies violate its
   guidance; it has brought a successful suit against another violator for the same
   policies.
          The EEOC’s near talismanic mantra that “further factual develop-
   ment” would “significantly advance” this court’s ability to resolve plain-
   tiffs’ claims would be more compelling if the EEOC gave an example of fac-
   tual development that would be helpful to the court. Yet nowhere in its briefs
   does the EEOC give specifics, and for good reason—no more factual detail is
   required to resolve the claims that Braidwood and Bear Creek present in this
   posture. Plaintiffs seek declaratory relief, and no further factual investigation
   is required to determine whether, for example, RFRA supersedes Title VII’s
   requirements as applied to their specific employment policies.
          The EEOC additionally alleges that any injury is abstract and hypo-
   thetical, as no individual nor the EEOC has brought an action against Braid-
   wood or Bear Creek. For the reasons listed above, that is not dispositive—
   the EEOC’s reading of a credible threat of enforcement is much too narrow.
          Second, the hardship prong. No party disputes that under current
   EEOC guidance, neither Braidwood nor Bear Creek can fire any employee

                                           24
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                                          No. 22-10145

   for nonconformance with the employer’s challenged religious beliefs. 31 The
   EEOC avers that this does not matter because neither plaintiff has asserted
   that it has undertaken any violative action toward a specific individual. Thus,
   there is no harm, as any violation remains speculative.
           That reading of the prong is too restrictive, though, and the correct
   analysis principally tracks the Article III injury analysis above. The in ter-
   rorem effects from the EEOC’s guidance and a credible prosecution risk are
   sufficient. 32 Denying prompt judicial review, again, forces plaintiffs to risk
   practicing their religious beliefs and maintaining the freedom to fire or choose
   not to hire those out of compliance with their beliefs—thereby putting them-
   selves in danger of a costly enforcement action.
           “One does not have to await the consummation of threatened injury
   to obtain preventive relief. If the injury is certainly impending, that is
   enough.” Union Carbide, 473 U.S. at 581 (quoting Reg’l Rail Reorg. Act Cases,
   419 U.S. 102, 143 (1974)). Litigants are entitled to relief where they “‘remain
   under a constant threat’ that government officials will use their power” to
   enforce the law against them. 33 Therefore, plaintiffs’ claims are ripe.

           _____________________
           31
             Aside from the ministerial exception, which would not apply to Braidwood nor
   to non-ministerial employees for Bear Creek. See, e.g., Our Lady of Guadalupe Sch. v.
   Morrissey-Berru, 140 S. Ct. 2049, 2060–61 (2020).
           32
              We do not opine on whether in terrorem effects would be sufficient without a
   credible risk of prosecution, but merely that both are present and sufficient here.
           33
              See Tandon v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1294, 1297 (2021) (per curiam) (quoting Roman
   Cath. Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 141 S. Ct. 63, 68 (2020)). The Fifth Circuit has reviewed
   a similar ripeness issue. See E. Tex. Baptist Univ. v. Burwell, 793 F.3d 449 (5th Cir. 2015),
   vacated and remanded sub nom. Zubik v. Burwell, 578 U.S. 403 (2016), and cert. granted,
   judgment vacated sub nom. Univ. of Dall. v. Burwell, 578 U.S. 969 (2016). In that case, we
   held that a claim by plaintiffs challenging a healthcare regulation that they asserted might
   allow healthcare providers to force them to pay for contraceptives was not ripe because
   there was no evidence that any third-party administrator had asked the plaintiffs to pay for
   contraceptives. And if that did occur, plaintiffs could sue before paying anything, so there

                                                25
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                                          No. 22-10145

                                                C.
           Finally, the EEOC asserts that plaintiffs’ claims addressing the scope
   of Title VII (claims 4 and 5), should fail because they have no cause of action.
   The EEOC is mistaken.
           The EEOC correctly states Title VII “confers no right of action
   against the [EEOC].” Gibson v. Mo. Pac. R.R., 579 F.2d 890, 891 (5th Cir.
   1978) (per curiam). Nor does the Declaratory Judgment Act provide an inde-
   pendent cause of action. See, e.g., In re B-727 Aircraft Serial No. 21010,
   272 F.3d 264, 270 (5th Cir. 2001).
           Still, plaintiffs can bring the underlying claims. The Declaratory Judg-
   ment Act is remedial. See Skelly Oil Co. v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 339 U.S.
   667, 671 (1950). If plaintiffs have a “case or controversy” within the jurisdic-
   tion of the court, then the remedy the Act provides is available. 28 U.S.C.
   § 2201.
           To be clear, the Act cannot create a cause of action where there is no
   risk of the future lawsuit from which the plaintiffs seek prospective relief, as
   there is no case or controversy. But so long as the defendant in a declaratory
   judgment suit can sue the plaintiff for an action the defendant is responsible

           _____________________
   would be no harm. Id. at 463.
            The main differences here are that (1) there has been prior enforcement, and plain-
   tiffs have hired at least one religiously non-conforming employee in the past, whom they
   would now be prevented from acting against without running the risk of an enforcement
   action; and (2) plaintiffs do not have the option of “do[ing] nothing,” id., without violating
   their closely held religious beliefs. No retrospective damages are available after forcing
   plaintiffs to endorse non-conforming religious behavior for any period. See Sambrano v.
   United Airlines, Inc., No. 21-11159, 2022 WL 486610, at *16 (5th Cir. Feb. 17, 2022) (Smith,
   J., dissenting) (“[C]onstitutional violations inflict irreparable harm . . . . ‘[D]ollars and
   cents’ cannot capture the damage that the government inflicts when it deprives rights that
   it exists to defend.” (second alteration in original) (citation omitted) (quoting BST
   Holdings, L.L.C. v. OSHA, 17 F.4th 604, 618 (5th Cir. 2021))).

                                                26
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                                         No. 22-10145

   for (within the scope of the proposed cause of action), the independent cause
   of action required for a declaratory judgment claim exists. 34
           It is without question that the EEOC is within its power to bring an
   enforcement action under Title VII against both Braidwood and Bear Creek
   for violations of the claims on which plaintiffs here seek prospective relief.
   Again, the Declaratory Judgment Act’s purpose is to allow “parties, threat-
   ened with liability, but otherwise without a satisfactory remedy, an early ad-
   judication of an actual controversy.” HAVEN, 915 F.2d at 170 (citation
   omitted).
           “Since it is the underlying cause of action of the defendant against the
   plaintiff that is actually litigated in a declaratory judgment action, a party
   bringing a declaratory judgment action must have been a proper party had the
   defendant brought suit on the underlying cause of action.” Id. at 171. We ask
   “whether ‘a coercive action’ brought by ‘the declaratory judgment defen-
   dant’ . . . ‘would necessarily present a federal question.’” 35 Those require-
   ments are satisfied here: Plaintiffs have a proper cause of action for their
   scope-of-Title-VII claims.

                                              IV.
           Next, class certification. Although the district court has wide discre-
   tion when defining and modifying classes, the class definitions it provided are
   too broad and ill-defined to reach the thresholds of class certification. Thus,
   we reverse the class certifications and proceed to the merits on only

           _____________________
           34
             See Collin County v. Homeowners Ass’n for Values Essential to Neighborhoods,
   (HAVEN), 915 F.2d 167, 170–71 (5th Cir. 1990); see also Lowe v. Ingalls Shipbuilding,
   723 F.2d 1173, 1179 (5th Cir. 1984).
           35
             Medtronic Inc. v. Mirowski Fam. Ventures, LLC, 571 U.S. 191, 197 (2014) (quoting
   Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Constr. Laborers Vacation Tr., 463 U.S. 1, 19 (1983)).

                                              27
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   Braidwood’s individual claims.
           A party seeking class certification must meet, for each defined class,
   the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a): numerosity, com-
   monality, typicality, and adequacy of representation. See Wal-Mart Stores,
   Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 349 (2011). Additionally, plaintiffs must show
   that their proposed classes “satisfy at least one of the three requirements
   listed in Rule 23(b).” Id. at 345. Plaintiffs sought certification under Rule
   23(b)(2), which applies when “the party opposing the class has acted or
   refused to act on grounds that apply generally to the class, so that final in-
   junctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief is appropriate respecting
   the class as a whole.” The Fifth Circuit has also articulated an “ascertaina-
   bility” requirement for Rule 23 class actions. 36
           District courts have significant leeway and discretion over the man-

           _____________________
           36
               John v. Nat’l Sec. Fire & Cas. Co., 501 F.3d 443, 445 (5th Cir. 2007) (“The exis-
   tence of an ascertainable class of persons to be represented by the proposed class repre-
   sentative is an implied prerequisite of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.”). “[T]o main-
   tain a class action, the class sought to be represented must be adequately defined and clearly
   ascertainable.” DeBremaecker v. Short, 433 F.2d 733, 734 (5th Cir. 1970) (per curiam).
   Courts traditionally refuse to certify classes that are “amorphous” or “imprecise.” John,
   501 F.3d at 445 & n.3.
            The district court questioned whether ascertainability is applicable in the
   Rule 23(b)(2) context. Although the court eventually held that it did not matter because
   the classes it defined were ascertainable, it seemed to imply that the Fifth Circuit had not
   taken a position.
            That contention is questionable. Per our rule of orderliness, “one panel of our
   court may not overturn another panel’s decision,” absent intervening factors. Jacobs v.
   Nat’l Drug Intel. Ctr., 548 F.3d 375, 378 (5th Cir. 2008). In DeBremaecker, 433 F.2d at 734,
   our circuit required ascertainability in a Rule 23(b)(2) class action, holding that defining a
   class as members involved in a “peace movement” was too ill-defined to be an “adequately
   defined and clearly ascertainable” class. We are aware of no changes in our caselaw casting
   doubt on DeBremaecker nor any caselaw indicating that our circuit should no longer follow
   its holding for Rule 23(b)(2) class actions.

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   agement of class actions. Allison v. Citgo Petroleum Corp., 151 F.3d 402, 408
   (5th Cir. 1998). They may modify the classes to fit the requirements better
   and should not dismiss an action purely because the proposed class definition
   is too broad. 37
           Plaintiffs sought to certify two classes: (1) a class of “[e]very employer
   in the United States that opposes homosexual or transgender behavior for
   religious or nonreligious reasons” and (2) a class of “[e]very employer in the
   United States that opposes homosexual or transgender behavior for sincere
   religious reasons.” The court accepted the first class without modification
   but changed the second to a “Religious Business-Type Employer Class.” 38
           The district court attempted to address ascertainability by stating that
   “[t]he class is no less ascertainable because of the existence of employers who
   oppose homosexual or transgender behavior but, nevertheless, either (1) do
   not have occasion to take adverse employment action against a person who
   exhibits homosexual or transgender behavior or (2) choose to not take ad-

           _____________________
           37
             See In re Monumental Life Ins., 365 F.3d 408, 414 & n.7 (5th Cir. 2004) (citations
   omitted). Instead, the court should “look beyond the pleadings to understand the claims,
   defenses, relevant facts, and applicable substantive law in order to make a meaningful deter-
   mination of the certification issues.” Yates v. Collier, 868 F.3d 354, 362 (5th Cir. 2017)
   (quoting M.D. ex rel. Stukenberg v. Perry, 675 F.3d 832, 837 (5th Cir. 2012)).
           38
               The religious business-type employer class consisted of “for-profit entities
   producing a secular product. While faith may be a motivating part of the businesses’ mis-
   sions, their incorporating documents generally do not include a religious purpose. For an
   employer like Braidwood, religion plays an important role, but is not the sole mission of the
   organization.” That class definition does not mention any opposition to “homosexual or
   transgender behavior.”
            The limiting factors included in the class definition appear to be derived from the
   LeBoon factors. See LeBoon v. Lancaster Jewish Cmty. Ctr. Ass’n, 503 F.3d 217, 226 (3d Cir.
   2007) (adopting a nine-factor test to determine whether an employer is a religious organi-
   zation). The limited class definition also removed the claims of Bear Creek, which the court
   separated into a church-type employer subclass, which we discuss separately.

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   verse employment action against a person regardless of their [sic] homosexual
   or transgender behavior.” The court then combined the commonality and
   typicality analysis.
           The court stated the legal standard for commonality and addressed
   the merits of the certified classes in the typicality section. 39 The court noted
   that “[t]he commonality and typicality requirements of Rule 23(a) tend to
   merge.” See Gen. Tel. Co. v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147, 157 n.13 (1982)). Accord-
   ingly, the court’s analysis of the suitability of class certification is scattered.
   Still, it generally depends on the concept that there is no need for an individ-
   ualized assessment of the claims of members of each certified class. That is
   in part because “[t]he sincerity inquiry under RFRA is generally not an exact-
   ing one,” and “fact-specific inquiries regarding the sincerity of belief do not
   prevent certification of the Religious Business-Type Employers class.”
           Moreover, the court opined that the ascertainability of the class mem-
   bers needs to be apparent only “at some stage of the proceeding,” and class
   members need not be ascertainable at this stage. 40 For the all-opposing
   employer class, which was certified only for the sex-neutral-codes-of-
   conduct claims, the common question was whether “the proper reading of
   Bostock prohibits them from maintaining sex-neutral standards of conduct for
   their business.”
           As the EEOC notes, those overbroad classes present difficulties.
   First, the class definitions are based on the class members’ state of mind.

           _____________________
           39
              The court stated, “The bottom-line question under commonality and typicality
   is whether the relief the named plaintiffs seek from the Court will resolve all class members’
   legal claims.” See Vita Nuova, Inc. v. Azar, No. 4:19-cv-532, 2020 WL 8271942, at *8 (N.D.
   Tex. Dec 2, 2020).
           40
             See Seeligson v. Devon Energy Prod. Co., 761 F. App’x 329, 334 (5th Cir. 2019)
   (quoting Frey v. First Nat’l Bank Sw., 602 F. App’x 164, 168 (5th Cir. 2015)).

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   “[C]ourts avoid certifying classes where the class definition depends on the
   class members’ state of mind [because] this state is generally a subjective
   factor.” 41 Furthermore, the classes are impermissibly vague in practice: The
   court cannot determine the specifics of the homosexual or transgender be-
   havior that a general class member would object to or how they would enforce
   that objection. 42
           Plaintiffs have standing only because of the specific injuries they al-
   leged and the credible fear they proved. 43 The district court has not ade-
   quately assessed those findings on a class-wide basis. For example, the court
   received a specific list of behaviors that Braidwood opposed and clarification
   as to the details of its opposition. 44 Regarding the specific sex-neutral codes
   of conduct, we cannot determine whether the employers’ codes of conduct
   are similar enough in practice to Braidwood’s that their lawfulness can be
   resolved “in one stroke.” Wal-Mart, 564 U.S. at 350.
           The religious-business-type employers class is also impermissibly
   vague and imprecise. First, the court asks us to make subjective distinctions
   to determine whether “religion plays an important role” in an organization.
   This determination can be made only on a case-by-case basis and not at this

           _____________________
           41
          William B. Rubenstein, 1 Newberg and Rubenstein on Class
   Actions § 3:5 (5th ed. 2021).
           42
            It is entirely plausible, for example, that an employer would object to homosexual
   conduct but have no policy of taking adverse action against the offending employee.
           43
              See, e.g., M.D. ex rel. Stukenberg v. Abbott, 907 F.3d 237, 271 (5th Cir. 2018)
   (upholding a class certification where the plaintiffs had established “a substantial risk of
   serious harm on a class-wide basis,” but decertifying another where the plaintiffs had not
   established “class-wide constitutional harm.”).
           44
                One example was the certification that Braidwood opposes homosexual conduct,
   not the identity itself. For example, “Braidwood is ‘unwilling to employ individuals whose
   lifestyles flout Christian Biblical teachings.’” (emphasis added).

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   level of abstraction at the class-certification stage. 45 Second, the court
   ignores the requirement of having common questions of law and fact for the
   RFRA claims; instead, the court merely states that sincerity does not require
   an exacting review. But the fact that a review of religious sincerity may not
   be demanding does not mean it is a non-existent requirement or non-essential
   for Rule 23 purposes.
           Commonality is satisfied only if the class members’ claims depend
   upon “a common contention” such that the “determination of its truth or
   falsity will resolve an issue . . . central to the validity of each one of the claims
   in one stroke.” 46 Without these guidelines, the doors to class action lawsuits
   would be thrown open too wide, especially in the Rule 23(b)(2) context.
   Accordingly, we police the definitions of class actions; otherwise, it would be
   impossible for future parties and courts to determine the scope and preclu-
   sive effect of any judgment.
           Under the facts presented, we cannot determine a more appropriate,
   limited class definition for any of the classes presented here. Accordingly,
   we reverse the certification of the classes. As both Braidwood and Bear Creek
   have standing and bring individual claims, we proceed to the merits of their
   respective motions for summary judgment for their individual claims. 47

           _____________________
           45
             For example, the LeBoon test has nine factors, all of which can be weighted differ-
   ently depending on a fact-specific inquiry. See infra note 48.
           46
              Walmart, 564 U.S. at 350. The district court understood this requirement when
   it noted that “[u]sing such a broad definition could defeat commonality and render the class
   imprecise” when denying portions of plaintiffs’ Motion to Amend/Correct Class-
   Certification.
           47
            Because, infra, we affirm the district court’s finding that Title VII does not bur-
   den Bear Creek, in practice only Braidwood’s claims are affected.

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                                                 V.
           The district court modified plaintiffs’ proposed classes to move the
   claims of Bear Creek and all others similarly situated into a proposed
   “church-type employer” class. The court noted that such employers “tend
   to explicitly state a religious purpose in their organizational documents and
   carry out their mission through instruction, prayer, and worship.”
           The court refused certification to this proposed “church-type
   employer” class because it found its members qualify as religious organiza-
   tions for purposes of the express statutory religious exemption to Title VII. 48

           _____________________
           48
                The religious exemption to Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-1(a), states,
           This subchapter shall not apply to an employer with respect to the employ-
           ment of aliens outside any State, or to a religious corporation, association,
           educational institution, or society with respect to the employment of indi-
           viduals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying
           on by such corporation, association, educational institution, or society of
           its activities.

   The Fifth Circuit has not defined what entities the religious exemption applies to, but other
   courts, and the EEOC itself, rely on weighing the LeBoon factors:
           (1) whether the entity operates for a profit, (2) whether it produces a secu-
           lar product, (3) whether the entity’s articles of incorporation or other per-
           tinent documents state a religious purpose, (4) whether it is owned, affili-
           ated with or financially supported by a formally religious entity such as a
           church or synagogue, (5) whether a formally religious entity participates in
           the management, for instance by having representatives on the board of
           trustees, (6) whether the entity holds itself out to the public as secular or
           sectarian, (7) whether the entity regularly includes prayer or other forms
           of worship in its activities, (8) whether it includes religious instruction in
           its curriculum, to the extent it is an educational institution, and (9) wheth-
           er its membership is made up by coreligionists.

   503 F.3d at 226 (collecting cases). No one factor is dispositive.

           No party seriously contests that, under this test, Bear Creek is a religious employer
   and Braidwood is not. Plaintiffs did ask the district court to consider shifting to a different
   standard based on a plain-text reading of the religious exemption. That new standard may

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                                          No. 22-10145

   As a result, they were not subject to Title VII and, therefore, could not be
   burdened by it. No party appeals this ruling on the merits, 49 so we pretermit
   discussion of it.
           Still, plaintiffs request that we find that the district court erred in
   granting judgment against Bear Creek. Plaintiffs’ arguments primarily re-
   volve around semantics, and they cite no relevant cases indicating that the
   court abused its discretion in declining the original motion to amend the final
   judgment. Accordingly, we affirm the decisions here.

                                               VI.
           On the merits, and as we explain, we decide that RFRA requires that
   Braidwood, on an individual level, be exempted from Title VII because com-
   pliance with Title VII post-Bostock would substantially burden its ability to
   operate per its religious beliefs about homosexual and transgender conduct.
   Moreover, the EEOC wholly fails to carry its burden to show that it has a
   compelling interest in refusing Braidwood an exemption, even post-Bostock. 50
           In Bostock, 140 S. Ct. at 1754, the Supreme Court noted that the free
   exercise of religion “lies at the heart of our pluralistic society.” Nowhere
   was that commitment made more evident than with the passage of RFRA,
   which “was designed to provide very broad protection for religious liberty.”
   Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S. at 706. RFRA states that the federal government
           _____________________
   include Braidwood. Still, that issue is not advanced by any party on appeal, and we do not
   need to consider it or endorse the LeBoon test at the moment.
           49
               The EEOC does not mention any disagreement with the district court’s asser-
   tions about the scope of the religious exemption. In its response brief, the EEOC states
   that it believes the district court’s reasoning is incorrect, but “because the district court
   relied on that analysis to grant summary judgment in the government’s favor, the govern-
   ment does not challenge that erroneous analysis on appeal.”
           50
           The statutory exemption from Title VII applies only to policies pertaining to
   homosexual and transgender behavior.

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   “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless the
   burden furthers a “compelling governmental interest” and is “the least
   restrictive means of furthering” that interest. 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-1(a)–(b).
   Additionally, the government “must accept the sincerely held . . . objections
   of religious entities.” Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter & Paul Home v.
   Pennsylvania, 140 S. Ct. 2367, 2383 (2020). 51
           Because sincerity is not at issue, 52 Braidwood must show that applying
   Title VII substantially burdens its ability to practice its religious faith.
   Braidwood maintains that it has sincere and deeply held religious beliefs that
   heterosexual marriage is the only form of marriage sanctioned by God, pre-
   marital sex is wrong, and “men and women are to dress and behave in
   accordance with distinct and God-ordained, biological sexual identity.” 53
           To that end, the EEOC guidance almost assuredly burdens the exer-
   cise of Braidwood’s religious practice. For example, “a law that operates so
   as to make the practice of . . . religious beliefs more expensive in the context
   of business activities imposes a burden on the exercise of religion.” Hobby
   Lobby, 573 U.S. at 710 (cleaned up). As the district court succinctly put it,
   “[E]mployers are required to choose between two untenable alternatives:

           _____________________
           51
               The religious are entitled to substantial deference when claiming obstruction of
   their religious exercise. Justice Alito went even further in his concurrence, indicating that
   the contraceptive exemptions granted by the Trump administration in Little Sisters were
   not only permitted, but required, under RFRA. Id. at 2387–96 (Alito, J., joined by Gorsuch,
   J., concurring).
           52
            Sincerity may be an issue in some instances, but here the EEOC does not pursue
   the argument. See United States v. Quaintance, 608 F.3d 717, 718–19, 722 (10th Cir. 2010).
           53
              Moreover, plaintiffs assert they are “called by God to obey the civil authorities.”
   Unlike the pastor of Bear Creek, Hotze never makes this declaration for Braidwood
   explicitly. Regardless of whether Braidwood believes it has moral authority to follow the
   EEOC’s orders, though, under EEOC guidance, Braidwood is still prevented from operat-
   ing its business in a manner that accommodates its religious beliefs.

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   either (1) violate Title VII and obey their convictions or (2) obey Title VII
   and violate their convictions.” 54 We see no reason why that formulation is
   incorrect. Being forced to employ someone to represent the company who
   behaves in a manner directly violative of the company’s convictions is a sub-
   stantial burden and inhibits the practice of Braidwood’s beliefs. 55
           The EEOC’s opposing arguments are uncompelling. Most of them
   involve discussing the inapplicability of deciding RFRA claims class-wide.
   We agree with the broad contours of that proposition. Still, the EEOC has
   presented no evidence indicating Braidwood’s individual compliance with
   EEOC guidance is not a substantial burden on its religious practice. Instead,
   the agency primarily cites East Texas Baptist, 793 F.3d at 459, for the notion
   that a party seeking to take advantage of the shield of RFRA must first
   identify “acts [it is] required to perform” that run contrary to its religious
   beliefs. The EEOC’s notion is not tenable.
           As stated, 56 the plaintiffs in East Texas Baptist did not have a ripe case
   because they had not presented evidence that they were required to pay third-
   party administrators for contraceptive services, and they could easily sue for
   injunctive relief before paying. Id. at 463. The same is not true of Braidwood.
           Per EEOC guidance, Braidwood, to comply, must violate its beliefs:
   No money needs to exchange hands; instead, Braidwood’s employment

           _____________________
           54
               See also Holt v. Hobbs, 574 U.S. 352, 360–62 (2015) (holding that a policy forcing
   a religious prisoner to shave his beard was a substantial burden because the prison’s groom-
   ing policy put him to the choice of either shaving his beard in contravention of his religious
   beliefs or face disciplinary action.)
           55
             Again, no party questions the sincerity of Braidwood’s beliefs. Braidwood has
   made it clear that even employing persons that engage in objectionable private conduct
   would “lend approval . . . [and] make [Braidwood] complicit in sin.”
           56
                See supra note 33.

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   policies must broadly change, and it must tacitly endorse homosexual and
   transgender behavior. The EEOC’s euphemistic phrasing that “the only
   action that Braidwood is required to take under Title VII is to refrain from
   taking adverse employment actions” is tantamount to saying the only action
   Braidwood needs to take is to comply wholeheartedly with the guidance it
   sees as sinful. 57 That is precisely what RFRA is designed to prevent.
           _____________________
           57
             The EEOC contends that the Sixth Circuit rejected the argument that employing
   individuals who engage in conduct prohibited by their employer’s religion automatically
   substantially burdens the employer’s religious practice. See Harris, 884 F.3d at 588. The
   EEOC’s comparison is inapt. First, the Sixth Circuit addressed the RFRA defense in the
   specific context of a dress code that strongly implicated sex stereotypes. Id. at 567, 571.
   The EEOC’s guidance post-Bostock implicates far more than dress codes, and Braidwood
   has properly established those burdens on its religious practices. Harris is also not binding
   on this court, nor did the Supreme Court address the RFRA-based defense.
            The providence of the Sixth Circuit’s decision is also questionable. It relied heavily
   on Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47, 65 (2006).
   Harris, 884 F.3d at 589. That reliance appears erroneous. The Sixth Circuit essentially
   applied a First Amendment associational analysis to a RFRA defense. The court decided
   that “as a matter of law, bare compliance with Title VII—without actually assisting or facil-
   itating [the employee’s] transition efforts—does not amount to an endorsement of [the
   employee’s] views.” Harris, 884 F.3d at 589. But that begs the question.
            And the Rumsfeld issue of outside speakers’ recruiting for the military at a college
   is nothing like a religious business’s being forced to employ someone it views as engaging
   in sinful behavior. A law student can easily distinguish between the messages military re-
   cruiters bring and the beliefs of the law school itself. The recruiter is not a school employee,
   but a government representative. The same is not true of a customer at a Braidwood busi-
   ness, who can rationally believe that if a cross-dressing employee served her, Braidwood,
   despite professions of Christian belief, endorses that conduct.
            Nor is the question in RFRA cases limited to third parties’ subjective beliefs about
   what any business may endorse. Instead, “the question that RFRA presents . . . [is] wheth-
   er the [government] mandate imposes a substantial burden on the ability of the objecting
   parties to conduct business in accordance with their religious beliefs.” Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S.
   at 724. Braidwood claims that paying money to an employee—even one who conducts
   transgressive conduct off-premises and outside work hours—is itself impermissible be-
   cause lending support of any kind, including monetary compensation to employees, is for-
   bidden by its faith. Braidwood views employing those individuals as a tacit endorsement.
   To be protected from Title VII’s mandates, Braidwood must show that such tacit endorse-

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           Now the compelling-interest prong. After Braidwood demonstrates a
   substantial burden on its religious liberty, the EEOC must establish that its
   interpretation of Title VII advances a “compelling government interest” and
   that its interpretation is the “least restrictive means of furthering that com-
   pelling governmental interest.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-1(b). That is “the most
   demanding test known to constitutional law.” City of Boerne v. Flores,
   521 U.S. 507, 534 (1997). The EEOC fails to meet that burden.
           In the district court, the EEOC asserted that “it is beyond dispute that
   the government has a compelling interest in eradicating workplace discrim-
   ination,” and RFRA does not “protect[] . . . discrimination in hiring . . .
   cloaked as religious practice.” Using Hobby Lobby’s statement that the gov-
   ernment “has a compelling interest in providing an equal opportunity to par-
   ticipate in the workforce without regard to race,” 573 U.S. at 733, the EEOC
   then states that sex should be treated the same in all cases, citing the plurality
   opinion in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. See 490 U.S. 228, 243 n.9 (1989)
   (plurality opinion).
           Although the Supreme Court may some day determine that prevent-
   ing commercial businesses from discriminating on factors specific to sexual
   orientation or gender identity is such a compelling government interest that
   it overrides religious liberty in all cases, it has never so far held that. And
   despite Bostock’s relying on Hopkins for a significant part of the ruling, 58 the
   Court expressly did not extend the holding that far; instead, it noted that
   RFRA “might supersede Title VII’s commands in appropriate cases.”
   140 S. Ct. at 1754. That qualification would be a nullity if the government’s
           _____________________
   ment substantially burdens its ability to practice its religious faith. But just because that
   belief does not comply with Title VII as a matter of law does not mean that a RFRA defense
   must fail.
           58
                See Bostock, 140 S. Ct. at 1741 (citing Hopkins, 490 U.S. at 239).

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   compelling interest in purportedly eradicating sex discrimination were a
   trump card against every RFRA claim.
           Instead, in RFRA cases, the courts must “scrutinize[] the asserted
   harm of granting specific exemptions to particular religious claimants.”
   Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 141 S. Ct. 1868, 1881 (2021) (alteration in orig-
   inal) (quoting Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546
   U.S. 418, 431 (2006)). Under RFRA, the government cannot rely on gener-
   alized interests but, instead, must demonstrate a compelling interest in
   applying its challenged rule to “the particular claimant whose sincere exer-
   cise of religion is being substantially burdened.” O Centro Espirita, 546 U.S.
   at 430–31. Even if there is a compelling interest as a categorical matter, there
   may not be a compelling interest in prohibiting all instances of discrimination.
           But we need not go so far, because the EEOC fails to carry its burden.
   It does not show a compelling interest in denying Braidwood, individually, an
   exemption. The agency does not even attempt to argue the point outside of
   gesturing to a generalized interest in prohibiting all forms of sex discrimina-
   tion in every potential case. Moreover, even if we accepted the EEOC’s for-
   mulation of its compelling interest, refusing to exempt Braidwood, and forc-
   ing it to hire and endorse the views of employees with opposing religious and
   moral views is not the least restrictive means of promoting that interest. 59
   We affirm the summary judgment here. 60
           _____________________
           59
              An example of a less restrictive means of furthering the government’s interest in
   preventing employment discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII could involve the
   EEOC’s propagating guidance that provides a framework for employers, like Braidwood,
   that oppose homosexual or transgender behavior on religious grounds, to obtain an exemp-
   tion. The lack of any guidance or method of gaining an exemption gives rise to the inference
   that the EEOC “has no intention in granting an exception” regardless of an employer’s
   religious exercise claim. Fulton, 141 S. Ct. at 1878.
           60
             Because Braidwood succeeds in its RFRA claim, this court is not required to
   address the constitutional issues presented by its First Amendment claims. As the EEOC

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                                               VII.
           Finally, Braidwood asks this court to decide, post-Bostock, what poli-
   cies are prohibited by Title VII. Specifically, Braidwood requests a declara-
   tory judgment that Title VII, as interpreted in Bostock, permits employers to
   discriminate against bisexuals and to establish sex-neutral codes of conduct
   that may exclude practicing homosexuals and transgender persons. 61
           On these issues, class-wide, the district court concluded that Title VII
   does not permit the classes to discriminate against bisexuals, nor did the court
   allow the classes to prohibit employees from taking hormone therapy or
   undergoing sex-reassignment surgery. On the other hand, the court held that
   the classes may “enforce a sexual ethic that applies evenly to heterosexual
   and homosexual sexual activity” and that Title VII, post-Bostock, does not
   prohibit employers from enforcing sex-specific dress code policies or sex-
   segregated bathroom policies.
           Although plaintiffs have a valid cause of action, we decline to answer
   these open questions for Braidwood’s policies because the class certifications
   have been reversed. Braidwood already has obtained statutory relief and does
   not represent a class requiring relief. On that ground, we vacate the judg-
   ments for all of the scope-of-Title-VII claims post-Bostock.
                                          * * * * *

           _____________________
   and the district court noted, the canon of constitutional avoidance indicates that if relief on
   statutory grounds is possible, courts should avoid granting relief on constitutional grounds.
   See Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 485 (2000) (“[The] ‘Court will not pass upon a con-
   stitutional question although properly presented by the record, if there is also present some
   other ground upon which the case may be disposed of.’” (quoting Ashwander v. TVA,
   297 U.S. 288, 347 (1936) (Brandeis, J., concurring))).
           61
             Namely, employer policies addressing hormone treatment and genital/sex-
   reassignment surgery, sex-neutral codes of conduct over sexual activities, dress codes, and
   sex-segregated bathroom policies.

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Case: 22-10145     Document: 00516793373            Page: 41   Date Filed: 06/20/2023

                                     No. 22-10145

          For the reasons stated, the district court’s conclusion that plaintiffs’
   claims are justiciable is AFFIRMED.               The class certifications are
   REVERSED. The judgment against Bear Creek is AFFIRMED. The
   ruling that Braidwood is statutorily entitled to a Title VII exemption is
   AFFIRMED. The judgment that Braidwood is constitutionally entitled to
   a Title VII exemption is VACATED. The judgment regarding the scope-of-
   Title-VII claims as a matter of law is VACATED.
          This matter is REMANDED. We place no limitation on the matters
   that the district court may address on remand, and we give no indication of
   what decisions it should reach.

                                         41