Liberty Counsel filed a reply brief to the First Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Calvary Chapel Belfast, which is challenging a decision by the University of Maine System (UMS) to rescind its winning bid in a property sale over its religious beliefs. The church is appealing a lower court decision that sided with UMS despite displays of religious animus and numerous irregularities in the bidding process.

The church sought an injunction after UMS rescinded the church’s winning bid for the Hutchinson Center building after public, legislative, and donor outcry over its Christian beliefs. According to the brief, UMS officials also deviated from its bidding procedures, accepted invalid appeals from the losing bidders, and cited relocating an Internet hub from the building as a “cost-avoidance deficiency” as the reason for rescinding the initial award. Subsequently, UMS held a second, rigged bidding process that awarded the building to a secular bidder. 

Despite the evidence of religious discrimination, federal Judge Stacey Neumann denied the preliminary injunction request citing a lack of “direct or circumstantial evidence” connecting UMS’ actions to the community’s religious animus. Liberty Counsel states in the brief that decisions from at least four other appeals courts make clear that when adverse government actions follow in sequence after “bigoted community opposition,” any “direct and circumstantial evidence” of discriminatory intent is “valid.”

While UMS concedes there was religious animus from the losing bidders, it argues it did not act with discriminatory animus and accuses the church of “trying to manufacture a legal issue.”

However, Liberty Counsel’s reply brief notes that a government decisionmaker doesn’t necessarily need to harbor its own animus to intentionally discriminate against a particular religion, especially if they knowingly act on the objections of those who do. All the church needs to show is that its religious beliefs were at least “in part” a motivating factor in UMS’ decision to rescind the bidding award.

“The record shows that [UMS] acted in the wake of extraordinary religiously motivated opposition from UMaine donors, faculty, alumni, and the disappointed bidders,” wrote Liberty Counsel. By granting an appeal from a losing bidder that was highly “infected” with religious animus, as well as overruling its own procurement experts, and disregarding the competitive negotiated procurement process, UMS made a decision that resulted in religious discrimination.

“The natural, inevitable outcome of [UMS’] choice was clearly foreseeable: the professors stopped howling, the alumni stopped railing, and the donors eased their threats. [The] decision delivered exactly what their animus demanded.” 

Calvary Chapel Belfast is likely to prevail on its Equal Protection and Free Exercise claims, wrote Liberty Counsel. Under the Equal Protection and Free Exercise Clauses, state actions must act neutrally toward religious beliefs.

The appeal seeks to restore the church as the rightful awardee from UMS’ first, non-discriminatory bidding process. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Calvary Chapel Belfast rightfully won the University of Maine System’s first bidding process. The church participated in the bidding process in good faith, but UMS then unlawfully rescinded their winning bid due to its religious beliefs after community backlash but under the excuse of procedural deficiencies. Such discrimination is unlawful, and an injunction is necessary to restore the church’s bid award and stop these unconstitutional actions.”