(RNS) — A federal appeals court ruled that a lawsuit against Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey by a former employee who was fired for being pregnant while unmarried can go forward.
Caitlin O’Connor sued the Lampo Group, Ramsey’s Franklin, Tennessee-based company, alleging religious discrimination. But the company said O’Connor was fired for violating the company’s ban on premarital sex, and argued that firing was not based on religion.
A federal judge initially agreed with the Lampo Group’s argument but later changed his mind after O’Connor’s lawyers filed a motion to reconsider. On Thursday (June 12), the judge ruled in O’Connor’s favor.
At issue is a “righteous living” policy at Lampo, better known as Ramsey Solutions, which requires employees to abide by Christian values. Those values, Ramsey’s company has argued, include banning intercourse outside of marriage. However, the company has declined to fire employees who have admitted other sexual conduct in the past, according to court documents.
The legal question in the case is whether O’Connor was fired for breaking a company rule or for being a bad Christian.
“Construed in favor of Defendant as required, the Amended Complaint alleges not that Plaintiff was terminated for violating a company policy against premarital sex, but rather that she was terminated for engaging in behavior that conflicted with — failed to adhere to— ‘traditional Judeo-Christian values or teaching,’” wrote U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson of the Middle District of Tennessee in ruling in O’Connor’s favor.
Richardson also wrote that companies are allowed to ban conduct — such as accepting bribes — that align with religious values. But the motivation behind rules of conduct and how they are applied matters. If breaking a policy is seen as sinful or failing to abide by Christian conduct, that can be problematic, he wrote.
“To be clear, where a company policy does have religious motivations, the religious underpinning of the policy under certain circumstances will support a particular claim that the company’s application of the policy to the employee — via, for example, the company’s invocation of a violation of the policy to terminate the employee — constituted religious discrimination,” Richardson wrote.
The O’Connor case has made national headlines, in part because legal filings have revealed Ramsey Solutions’ scrutiny of the sex lives of employees. In one filing, a company executive described firing a newly married employee who became pregnant as company officials believed she had sex before the wedding.
Filed in 2020, the lawsuit has been slowly making its way through the court system for years.
“We are looking forward to getting in front of a jury with the claims and are pleased with the direction of the court’s latest ruling,” Heather Collins, O’Connor’s attorney, said in an email.
Ramsey Solutions did not respond to a request for comment.
Last August, a federal appeals court ruled that a religious discrimination case filed by a former Ramsey employee could go forward. In that case, Brad Amos, who was a video editor for Ramsey Solutions, said he was fired because he disagreed with his employer’s views on religion and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dave Ramsey was critical of COVID-19 shutdowns and demanded employees go back to work in person, saying his company would be guided by faith not fear. Amos has argued his faith required him to abide by social distancing and other COVID-19 health precautions. The Amos lawsuit was originally dismissed, but that dismissal was reversed on appeal. O’Connor’s lawyer cited the Amos appeal in asking Richardson to reconsider.
Ramsey’s attorneys are attempting to quash a subpoena that would require him to testify at the Amos trial, which is set for mid-July, saying he was not involved in the decision to fire Amos and that appearing at the trial would disrupt his radio talk show, “The Ramsey Show,” where Ramsey dispenses his folksy and sometimes sarcastic faith-based views about money.
“With all due respect, the subpoena to Mr. Ramsey appears to be one more effort to waste Mr. Ramsey’s time after four years of litigation,” Ramsey’s attorney wrote in their motion.
In 2022, Ramsey Solutions settled a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee who said she lost her job after coming out as gay.
A class action suit, filed by former listeners of Ramsey’s talk show, is currently on hold. Those former listeners say they were defrauded by one of the companies Ramsey repeatedly endorsed. That company, Dave Ramsey and the Lampo Group have asked an appeals court to compel the former listeners into arbitration.
