Auto repair chain can franchise only to professing Christians, appeals court rules
A federal appeals court panel unanimously ruled that a Christian auto repair chain can franchise only to Christians, dismissing a lawsuit by a Jewish franchise applicant.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled last week for Christian Brothers Automotive Corporation, a faith-based auto-repair company with a mission to “glorify God by providing ethical and excellent service to its customers.”
The entity franchises only to professing Christians and requires franchisees to be “spiritually aligned with the company and prepared to share a personal Christian testimony.” Christian Brothers boasts more than 250 franchisees across about 30 states, a group that includes at least two ethnic Jews who are professing Christians, according to court documents.
Evan Domanic, who identified as both ethnically and religiously Jewish, applied for a Christian Brothers franchise in fall 2020, court records show. He advanced to the third of eight steps in the franchising process before a company employee informed him the application was ending because he is Jewish.
Domanic sued in 2022 in the Southern District of Texas, alleging the denial was based on his Jewish ethnicity. The district court granted Christian Brothers summary judgment, finding the policy was religious discrimination outside U.S. Code Title 42, a key civil rights statute which prohibits racial discrimination in contractual and legal relationships and applies broadly to both public and private sectors.
On appeal, Domanic argued that Jewish ethnicity and faith are essentially identical for federal-law purposes. However, the 5th Circuit panel unanimously declined last week to adopt what it called this “novel” argument because it is “in tension with the Supreme Court’s longstanding precedent that § 1981 does not reach religious discrimination.”
Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee, authored the panel opinion, writing that the “argument is also out of step with the Seventh Circuit, which has twice rejected similar contentions about the indivisibility of Jewish ethnicity and faith” under federal law.
Noting that the law has long been interpreted to prohibit racial and ethnic discrimination in contracts but not religious discrimination, the panel emphasized that Christian Brothers’ policy is based on religious affiliation, not ancestry.
Citing “sister circuit decisions” which “readily distinguished discrimination based on Jewish ancestry or ethnicity … from discrimination based on Jewish religion,” the appellate court stated that "all the evidence points to this being an instance of religious and not ethnic discrimination: Christian Brothers franchises only to professing Christians and, indeed, its franchisees include ethnic Jews who meet that religious qualification."
The appellate court reasoned that "no evidence whatsoever suggests Christian Brothers, behind the façade of a religious policy, is in reality engaging in covert antisemitism.”
Christian Brothers did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Established in 1982, Christian Brothers is a national auto repair chain that openly espouses Christian ideals. On its website, the company quotes from Matthew 22:39 — “love your neighbor as yourself” — as its “guiding idea.”
The website reads in part: “No passage sums up our approach to customer service better than this one: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Even after more than 40 years of business in 30 states, this simple idea continues to guide our policies and practices.”
A 2024 Christian Brothers promo video shows employees gathering and praying as a narrator speaks: “From the beginning our faith in Christ has been the bedrock of our organization and we express this belief by serving others with integrity, kindness, transparency and compassion. This will never change.”
