A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a former employee who claimed Ramsey Solutions, the company run by Christian personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, discriminated against him during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brad Amos, a former video editor at the Franklin, Tennessee-based company, demandado Ramsey Solutions in 2021, saying he was fired for not agreeing with Ramsey’s faith-based views about how to respond to the pandemic.
During the pandemic, Dave Ramsey minimizado the risk of COVID-19, referred to those who wear masks as “wusses,” barred employees from working at home and said his company would be guided by faith not fear. Amos’ attorneys alleged that at the Lampo Group — which does business as Ramsey Solutions — wearing a mask or social distancing was seen as “against the will of God,” and employees were required to agree with Ramsey’s beliefs about the pandemic.
Attorneys for Amos also claimed that his faith, including Amos’ belief in the so-called Golden Rule — doing unto others as you would have them do unto you — required him to mask, social distance and comply with other CDC recommendations during the pandemic.
His insistence on doing so, Amos alleged, led to his firing.
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“Amos says that his termination was based on his failure to submit to Lampo’s religious practices and his expression of his own religious beliefs with regard to COVID measures. These facts form the basis for Amos’s religious-discrimination claims,” according to a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Amos’ attorney also claimed that Ramsey Solutions had committed fraud by allegedly lying to him about the “cult-like” atmosphere at the company.
In December, a U.S. District Court had despedido both the discrimination and fraud claims before they went to trial, saying Amos had failed to show he was discriminated against.
In the lower court ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson wrote that “it is not enough that a plaintiff’s sincerely held religious beliefs do not align with the religious beliefs that underlie the employment policy (requirement) that the plaintiff was terminated for non-complying with. Instead, the plaintiff needs to have alleged a religious belief that conflicts with an employment requirement,” Richardson wrote.
On Thursday, the appeals court ruled that the district court had erred in dismissing Amos’ discrimination claim. The court ruled that federal law protects employees from discrimination based on “religious non-conformity” — also known as reverse discrimination, or requiring an employee to follow a religious belief or practice.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled that a belief in the Golden Rule qualified as a religious claim and was protected from discrimination.
During the appeal, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a friend of the court brief, urging the appeals court to reverse the lower court ruling — saying Amos had made a plausible claim for religious discrimination.
The EEOC also argued that the term “reverse religious discrimination” was not accurate and said the term “religious non-conformity” was more accurate in cases like the one involving Amos.
“As with all other types of religious-discrimination claims, the employer is accused of discriminating against the employee on the basis of religion,” the EEOC wrote. “Here, however, it is the employer’s religion that is the focus. But that doesn’t make the discrimination ‘reverse.’”
“We’re happy with the result and look forward to the opportunity to continue fighting for our client,” said Jonathan Street, an attorney for Amos. The case will now return to the lower district court for trial.
Ramsey Solutions no respondió a una solicitud de comentarios.
The company’s lawyers, in a brief filed as part of the appeal, said the disagreement between the company and Amos was about how to apply safety protocols. Religion, they argued, had nothing to do with it.
“This lawsuit should never have been filed,” an attorney for Ramsey wrote. “At the heart of it is an aggrieved employee who disagreed with his employer’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Ramsey’s attorneys also argued that Amos had failed to make his religious discrimination claims in a clear and timely manner and so those claims were invalid. “Because Plaintiff-Appellant failed to plead reverse religious discrimination, it is not properly before the Court on appeal,” Ramsey’s attorney argued.
Eugene Volokh, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford and a long-time UCLA law professor, was skeptical about the Sixth Circuit ruling. Volokh, who often discusses First Amendment cases at “The Volokh Conspiracy,” his long-running legal blog, said that Amos would have to prove that religion was at the heart of his trouble with Ramsey.
An employer, Volokh said, could have secular reasons for disagreeing with vaccine mandates or other COVID-related restrictions. If that is the case, then religious discrimination is not involved. Nor would it matter if an employer’s skepticism was motivated by religion.
He also said that most religious discrimination cases are more straightforward — for example, if someone is fired for their religious identity or if an employer fails to offer an accommodation to a religious employee for their religious practice.
Determining if a secular firing decision — a disagreement over COVID rules — was motivated by religion is more complicated, he said. He said that the court may suspect that agreement on COVID was used as a kind of religious test to screen out the wrong kinds of Christians.
“You don’t go along with our views on COVID — well that means to us that you are not our kind of Christians,” said Volokh, speculating on what could constitute religious discrimination in a case like this. “And therefore, we are really going to fire you because of that.”
That kind of approach would be harder to show but could constitute discrimination.
Ramsey Solutions has faced a series of lawsuits and controversias in recent years — largely from staff who have run afoul of faith-based rules about sex and gossip — including an ongoing lawsuit filed by an unmarried employee who was fired after telling her boss she was pregnant. In that case, Ramsey argued the employee was fired for breaking a rule that barred all unmarried employees from having sex — rather than for being pregnant.
The company is also dealing with a class-action lawsuit prompted by its ties to a troubled time-share exit company.
Ramsey did get some legal good news this week. The appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling dismissing Amos’ fraud claims. Amos had claimed leaders of Ramsey Solutions promised a “drama-free” work environment and had dismissed concerns that Ramsey Solutions had a “cult-like” work culture and was run more like a church than a company. Amos alleged he had moved from California to Tennessee based on those assurances, which he later claimed were untrue.
The appeals court ruled that Amos knew there had been complaints about Ramsey Solutions but did not do enough to vet those complaints. Instead, he had relied solely on assurances from leaders at Ramsey Solutions.
“Amos even avers that he was put on notice that Lampo’s statements about the company were potentially inaccurate,” the appeals court ruled. “According to his complaint, Amos’s only real attempt to investigate or guard against rumors about Lampo’s workplace culture was to ask Lampo employees about it.”
Bob Smietana es reportero nacional de Religion News Service.
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I think I’ll sue the government and my employer for forcing me to wear a mask that only made people sick and forcing me to test on a weekly basis. The “vaccine “ has been shown by many to only have injured and killed countless!
In the UK, clinicians wearing masks during COVID prevented one million infections.
Whose numbers are those, Francis? The NHS’s? There’s no credible data supporting that claim, as research shows.
How would you go about to “prove” that negative statement?
Strange for me to have to state the obvious, but there’s no evidence that “masks only made people sick” or that “vaccines have only injured and killed countless people”. The exact opposite is true and there are dozens, probably hundreds, of studies that have demonstrated the efficacy of masks and vaccines in fighting highly infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Mike, have you read this study, and would you please point out how it is flawed? Thank you!
https://denisrancourt.ca/uploads_entries/1696822761794_2023-10-08-Correlation-Whether-Nobel-vaccine-saved-millions-of-lives.pdf
I am not qualified to evaluate research modalities, and I’m guessing neither you, Kenly, nor Mike are either- however, I am aware enough to note that this doesn’t seem to be peer reviewed or published in any medical journals, suggesting that people who ARE qualified to evaluate research were not willing to add their support to this.
Jen,
I find it ironic you’re dismissing the validity of this study based on supposed lack of peer review when you have recently said in the past regarding police department corruption that if the “good” guys aren’t turning in the bad guys, then they are indirectly participating in said corruption. Isn’t this rule also applicable to the medical industry? I’ve been exhaustively researching this fraud for decades and for very personal reasons.
There are hundreds of peer reviewed studies showing heart related damage connected to the covid injection – are they convincing you to speak out against it yet? If not, why not?
The courts have already ruled big pharma committed grammatical fraud by calling the injections a “vaccine”. Does this concern you?
Kenly,
They are not comparable situations because science and policing have entirely different vetting protocols. I agree that capitalism has corrupted the way we distribute medicine in America because we maximize profit rather than health, but that doesn’t mean the peer review process is flawed- that’s the failsafe. If your research doesn’t withstand scrutiny, it doesn’t matter how many graphs you plot, it shouldn’t be considered as reliable as peer reviewed research.
Kenly Wayne you have to be careful about your sources. Denis Rancourt is a disgraced professor with no credibility or integrity. Not worth my time
Jen, our realities are so far apart that I doubt any evidence I provide you will matter, and I’ve been at this a long time. I could give you days of reading from whistleblowers/editors of the most “prestigious” scientific journals, experiments in the medical and scientific system that scream peer review is a joke.
Here’s one from someone who ought to know:
https://www.wired.com/story/peer-reviewed-scientific-journals-dont-really-do-their-job/
Tricia, so tell me how you arrived at your conclusion – did you just Wikipedia Rancourt and decide he’s “disgraced” without any “credibility” or “integrity”? Or did you actually take the time to dig deep and find Rancourt’s side of the story to make a better judgement?
The older I get the more often I admire those folks that buck the system, rather than the ones that go along to get along. Bucking the system gets you plenty of dirty laundry. Got plenty of experience here. 🙂
Please read the abstract.
https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/102?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
This technology found in the injections has been around for decades. Here is a transcript of a Tedx talk explaining how a “thousand billion nanobots” could be in the contents of a needle.
https://outraged.substack.com/p/the-emergence-of-nanobot-society
I can always be swayed by supportable data. I think that Simine Vazire makes some solid points. The peer review system, like literally every system, seems to have some broken areas. But it’s also still much more effective than NOT peer reviewing- something even Simine acknowledges. I found this summed it up nicely.
“It’s not that peer review can’t work; indeed, as the old saying goes, it’s the worst form of quality control, except for all the other ones that have been tried. But there are new ways of doing peer review that we haven’t yet tried, and that’s where preprints come into play.
Many of the problems with peer-reviewed journals are problems with the journals, rather than problems with peer review, per se.”
It sounds like they’re advocating for adapting and reforming, not ignoring for whatever “science” people want to produce.
I will also note that Vazire’s expertise is in psychology, a soft science, which will necessarily have different challenges in the actual reviewing of science than the hard sciences do.
I am not ready to throw out the peer review system as the best way we have to get credible science well known, and it doesn’t seem like Vazire is either.
Why does a faith based business have to kowtow to employees personal choices?
I’m beginning to wonder (actually an understatement on my part) just what your stance (as a website)is about things like servant hearts and the responsibility of employees to submit to the owner’s prerogative.
I’m reminded of numerous followers of Jesus abandoning him over his stand on tough things.
Are you sure you aren’t mixing liberal ideology with that Gospel?
PS: having been a surgical assistant for decades I can tell you masks only kept my spit and exhaled moisture from falling into the patients wound. Social distancing was debunked…
This is a news report, not an opinion piece. There’s nothing “liberal” about reporting on a court case that involves questions of religious liberty and discrimination. Is it really better to declare such topics off limits to Christian journalists and new sites? What would be the justification for that?
As for masks and social distancing, you’re simply wrong. There are new studies coming out even today which confirm that the use of masks and social distancing are effective in reducing the incidents of infection and the severity of the disease in cases where infections occurred. Any claims to the contrary are based on a tiny handful of studies, often of dubious quality.
There are legitimate questions about weighing the benefits of mask wearing and social distancing against the potential downsides — discomfort, skin irritation, the psychological effects of increased isolation, and so on — but that’s an entirely different issue. Masks and social distancing undoubtedly saved lives, especially before the vaccines were widely available.
Fauci admitted that social distancing and mask wearing were pasta they threw at the wall. There is no data showing either one did anything at all.
There is plenty of data showing that masks- any masks- mitigate risk, and N95 masks almost entirely mitigate risk of covid transmission.
“Experts unanimously agree that the air-borne route is the predominant route for disease transmission. Therefore, facemasks are, till the date, the most effective Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for disease mitigation of transmission.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9947910/
they may have been trowing pasta at the wall, but some of it stuck, because it’s just good virus mitigation strategy, especially once they figured out that it was predominantly transferred airborne rather surfaces.
Sure, I’m going to believe the government that she’s been caught countless times lying to the people, over my own eyes, ears and discernment through Christ, the ultimate Truth.
The company says that the issue wasn’t covid response, but job performance. I don’t know which is true. CAN a person be fired for poor job performance, or is the company always at fault? I’d prefer to hear all the facts before declaring either party guilty.
there is no evidence of poor job performance, only of non-compliance with the anti-mask, work in the office policy. wearing a mask or not cannot possibly figure into job performace unless one is a surgeon, in which case NOT wearing a mask would be grounds for termination.
Ramsey has been sued before for terminating people for illegal reasons, so everything is “job performace”. Firing someone for poor job performance requires a LOT of documentation to stand against challenges.
I agree with Dave Ramsey
Health systems are broken and a lot of them bought out.
At some point we have to make a stand for truth!
Regardless of the health system, it’s still illegal for Ramsay to not accommodate Amos’ strongly held religious belief that he should be loving and serving his neighbor by wearing a mask. Ramsay is allowed to disagree, but legally he’s not allowed to take any action against his employee’s religious belief.
Being fired because of complying with CDC directives during the height of a pandemic that killed over a million people in the US is what can happen in the bible belt. I got the vaccine and booster with no problems whatsoever. Many people had hysterical reactions to the vaccine that were said to be caused by the vaccine. Making a political football out of trying to contain a deadly pandemic is despicable politics.
I live in the south, in a small town in Texas. No one here was hysterical over vaccinations and everyone I knew took them.
I know a number of people who died from (or merely ‘with’) COVID, but I think they could have been saved with Ivermectin if they hadn’t been locked up in a hospital under CDC restrictions. As to the damage done by the ‘vaccine,’ it was serious, and for many, it is ongoing. This isn’t political, just bad medicine.
And every dose of Ivermectin should come with a free tin foil hat. To keep the government from listening to your thoughts.
Yeah because the experimental vaccine working was so much more believable than a drug that’s been on the market and used by humans for treating viral infections for decades. The tin foil hat wearers are the ones who believe the government is ever out to help the people. Where did covid originate?
Jane, it probably won’t make much difference to you, but I personally know individuals who ordered Ivermectin to have on hand and when the got Covid they used it and quickly reduced Covid’s impact on them. They also made it available to others. So yes, it does and did work, but to each their own opinion.
This suit is frivolous and should not have been filed. If you want to work for Dave Ramsey be certain you agree with his views up front. If you are in doubt about that, do not work for him. Same with everyone else. To seek out an employer that stringent in his beliefs then whine about them and take him to court is a waste of time and money.
When did Amos begin working for Ramsey? The article doesn’t say, but it seems pretty clear it was before the pandemic. How could he know what Ramsey’s views regarding COVID-19 and a proper response to it would even be if there had been no company policy regarding such an event before the event occurred?
The pandemic, and its impact on his job, was hardly something the employee could have predicted, though. I suspect he is a Christian and agreed with Ramsey on quite a lot before this situation came about and caused the conflict, maybe believed wholeheartedly in the work Ramsey does. I know I did. I doubt this guy could’ve imagined being put into a position where such a disagreement would even happen, much less cause the loss of his job.
He went to work for Ramsey before the outbreak- he had no way of knowing that Ramsey would be anti-mask in a global pandemic.
If Ramsey gets to sue to use his “firmly held religious beliefs” to harm people, this guy should absolutely be able to sue to use his own “firmly held religious beliefs” to keep people around him safe.
I would agree with you if this was about any of the already stated (ridiculous) policies, but this came up after he was already employed.
Why is it rare to find fellow believers to be on the side of sense and reason? I loved to read Tyrone’s comment! How can we be a worthy witness for Jesus when we sound like lunatics or support lunatics for office? Tyrone’s point about the 1 million plus dead ought to give some pause, no?
This is good news! Firing someone for wearing a mask during the worst pandemic to hit the planet since 1918 is the height of arrogance. One thing authoritarian evangelicals demand of everyone (Christian or not) is conformity to their particular flavor of Christianity. One thing authoritarian evangelicals cannot abide is reasoned, rational dissent. It seems to offend their sense of entitlement. There’s already good reason to suspect that Dave Ramsey is a shady businessman (witness the Time-share scam for which he’s being sued), why should we assume he’s an honest broker in living out other Christian precepts?
It’s so ironic you say all this when the left demanded everyone follow their pointless rules during the pandemic and forfeit all of their critical thinking ability to see certain demographics of people were being heavily affected by covid, but others seemed to be untouched, so forcing people to give up their livelihood and lives, in general, would be a HUGE mistake. The vulnerable should have taken precautions while the healthy continued to do what’s necessary. Now we are experiencing extreme inflation because the government forced the people to stop working. You still believe the lies they fed and it’s astonishing.
Sarah, the pandemic affected the entire world, and the US is recovering economically the quickest. This was a novel virus, that no one knew the impact of, and the experts were doing the best they could to mitigate it with the information they had. As they got new information, they updated the mitigation efforts.
Because a segment of our society made it political and refused to comply with any of the mitigation efforts, we weren’t able to keep it from spreading and mutating, and hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly. It’s still spreading widely, but thankfully in a less lethal mutation. Less lethal doesn’t mean not-harmful, though, as it still impacts many body systems, and can cause long term problems.
Because a segment of society used their eyes and ears instead of fawning over government directives that had no basis in reality, you mean? Just go along with whatever the government tells you, Jen. It’s worked out so well for everyone in the past.
“The vulnerable should have taken precautions while the healthy continued to do what’s necessary.”
That’s not how vaccines work.
Consider how kids are required to be vaccinnated for DTap, MMR, smallpox, polio, HPV, Hep A and Hep B, chicken pox, VAR, meningitis, TB, and RSV to attend most schools. I had to prove my vaccinations were up to date before moving into a college dorm or setting foot on my grad school campus – and I was in my 20s!
All of these viruses are still evolving. And we can’t wait until we know everything about them before taking action – we are still learning about smallpox, shingles, polio (all have made a comeback), along with covid and the flu (which has new strains every year). Can you imagine the catastrophe if we all refused any vaccinations until we had these all figured out?
Just as you shoudn’t work for Dave if you know his stances (although the bigger issue is he is a bully), perhaps you shouldn’t work for a company or attend a school that requires vaccinations? I admire “no vaccine” communities that set up their own schools and the like – they are willing to accept the outcomes of their choices. And yes, you ALWAYS have a choice, even if you don’t like it.
Vaccine didn’t stop transmission. So…what argument do you have now?
Vaccines don’t always stop transmission; they merely boost your immune system to support your body in fighting the virus. So, vaccines do not completely prevent you from getting a virus, but they mitigate how severely you’re hit by the virus and/or how contagious you are. I have gotten chicken pox even though I had the vaccine. It did make managing the virus a LOT better; I did not get it nearly on the severe level that was expected of an adult (as we all know, getting chicken pox as an adult can quickly advance to shingles and be dehibilitating).
I got covid after getting the vaccine, and it was like a cold. My friends who weren’t vaccinated against covid? 4 hospitalized, and 1 lost her life. Even more importantly, I was protecting my mom, who is immunocompromised due to having kidney disease. I could not risk passing this on to her.
So…what argument do you have now?
And are you saying you have taken ZERO vaccines? None that I listed? I doubt that…
Your anecdotes shouldn’t be the law of the land. Or does that argument only count when you don’t want to follow the anecdotes of republicans? Young, healthy people should have been working, Marin. No government has the right to force its people into poverty or loss of life through restricting their movement and right to earn a living. Period. And if you don’t believe in the basic sovereign rights of humans, you don’t believe in Liberty and Freedom, which is the human birthright. Sacrifice YOUR Freedom for safety, you don’t have the right to put that up on the chopping block for everyone else just because you’re afraid and believe chicken little narratives.
I never said anything about anecdotes being the law of the land or Republicans. I merely pointed out the flaw in your understanding of how vaccinations work, and that requirements for vaccinations (to attend schools, to travel to certain countries, to work certain jobs) is NOTHING new. And if someone doesn’t like it, that’s FINE – they have the FREEDOM to choose other options (to find other schools or jobs, travel to different places, etc). Now, it IS funny the same folks mad about covid vaccinations will line up for the required vaccinations for their travel visa for their vacation. Seen it.
I saw a WHOLE LOT of anti-vaccine people trying to make THEIR way of life the law of the land. Does this mean you’re NOT ok when masks and vaccines are required, but you ARE ok when masks and vaccines are prohibited? I wear a mask BY CHOICE due to my mom’s condition, specifically on days I have to travel. I leave other people alone to do as they see fit. Why isn’t prohibiting masks infringing on MY freedom?
I think a lot of what happened during covid was us “learning as we go” due to the newness of the virus. I don’t think it was perfect, nor do I think it would have gone ANY better had we waited to take action.
And you never answer ANY questions I pose – you merely change the argument and added insults (I’m “afraid and believe chicken little narratives”? Sarah, I took the time to be very informed on this matter due to my mother’s kidney disease; and, most importantly, I’m a fellow believer who has been VERY respectful to you in our disagreement. Why did I deserve THAT?
I find the parallels between authoritarian evangelicals and the national Democratic party very interesting. In terms of controlling other peoples lives they are birds of a feather.
Donald, this is an interesting concept. can you point to any authoritarian evangelicals that ARE democrats? because you think there’d be overlap.
Donald – I felt the same way when Republicans came for the books I’m able to check out of the library.
You wanted to check out books that depicted sexual interaction between children? Yeah, that’s why they’re not in the library anymore.
No, I wanted to read the Autobiography of Ruby Bridges to my nephew. It was banned due to the “trauma” of including the VERY racial slurs Ruby Bridges endured when she was eight years old integrating a school (according to the form filled out by a complaining parent). Apparently Ruby was old enough to endure it, but we aren’t old enough to read about it.
This same complaint is why the film was pulled from public elementary schools.
Sarah, you make a LOT of assumptions and accusations.
And also, people can read what they want, even if we dislike or disapprove of it. Our preferences, dislikes and disapprovals are not to be the law of the land, determining what books are to be in a public library.
Freedom, remember?
Dave Ramsey is prominent enough at this point that people should know what they’re signing up for if they go to work for him. If you don’t like the values/philosophy of Ramsey Solutions, but still take a job with them, that’s on you.
Christians- “Precautionary Covid restrictions are against my religious freedom!”
Also Christians- “Unfair! My company is getting sued for not being able to force employees to follow my religious convictions on Covid!”
Seems weird.
Summed up perfectly.
I’ll also add:
Christians – “Schools are brainwashing our children!”
Also Christians – “Schools are to only teach the things I agree with!”
The failure to see the irony is downright funny.
How bizarre is it for a financially related supposedly pro-life organization to fire someone for being pregnant? How is she supposed to become financially stable when she is pregnant and jobless? The more grace-filled solution would be to help her remain employed and get counseling. This is why women have abortions (not saying it’s okay). Sticking to impossible-to-enforce policies like this is rigid and ultimately unhelpful.
Not only that, they fire women for being pregnant out of wedlock, but don’t fire men who have affairs and cheat on their wives.
their “religious values” are mostly just to be able to bully and control people.
Very smart doctors at the NIH but they were short on truth and transparency as to the origin of the Covid virus. No longer trust the NIH. There has been considerable conversation that the Covid 19 virus was “manufactured” per testimony of Dr. Rand Paul
I think it’s important to remember that Rand Paul is an ophthalmologist.
If I were religious, I would Dave Ramsey to be a money changer in a temple