In its decision the 9th Circuit Court (whose decision now is final) ruled that an organization is religious if it has a self-identified religious purpose, acts consistently with those purposes, and promotes itself publicly as religious.

Among Monday’s actions, the Supreme Court justices opted not to hear Sylvia Spencer et al v. World Vision, a case that had potentially significant implications for religious organizations’ hiring practices.

The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari lets stand an August 2010 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of World Vision and against three employees who were fired after the organization concluded that they did not believe that Jesus Christ is fully God.

“Today’s action by the U.S. Supreme Court represents a major victory for the freedom of all religious organizations to hire employees who share the same faith–whether Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, or any other religion,” World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns said in a press release. “I am pleased, relieved and gratified with the court’s action. After four years of litigation, we at World Vision U.S. may now put this matter behind us, and continue our policy of hiring Christians.”

The denial brings an end to the World Vision lawsuit, but the issue of religious-based hiring will be one of the key issues before the Supreme Court this year. One of the key questions in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, which the court will consider on Wednesday, is whether an elementary school teacher can be considered a ministerial employee.

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