The Supreme Court must save

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-supreme-court-must-save-religious-foster-care-agencies-from-lgbt-activist-assault

The Supreme Court must save religious foster care agencies from LGBT activist assault

by Nicole Russell 

 | August 30, 2019 06:00 AM

by Nicole Russell

 | August 30, 2019 06:00 AM

Liberals have ratcheted up their war on faith-based foster care and adoption services. Luckily, conservatives aren’t taking the assault on religious liberty lying down. 

This week, at least 10 states and 44 members of Congress filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to hear Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case two foster mothers brought against the City of Philadelphia. The suit challenges the
city’s discriminatory policies keeping faith-based foster agencies such as Catholic Social Services from operating according to their beliefs. Texas, Ohio, and Oklahoma, among other states, joined in an amicus brief agreeing that faith-based foster agencies play a vital role in addressing the national foster crisis and that their right to operate within their religious convictions should not be infringed.

Here’s how this all started. 

Last year, the city of Philadelphia stopped placing children with Catholic Social Services solely because the city disagreed with the agency’s religious beliefs on marriage and their policy of only placing children with heterosexual couples. They said Catholic Social Services’ faith-based stance violated their non-discrimination policy. Worse still, Philadelphia officials did this even though not a single same-sex couple had ever come to that agency seeking to foster children. 

Without new referrals, the number of children in CSS-affiliated certified homes has dwindled, leaving foster families’ homes empty and forcing the organization to reduce their staff. The only way CSS can care for foster children is through a contract and license with the city. They may eventually need to close the 100-year-old foster care ministry.

In July, Sharonell Fulton and Toni Simms-Busch, Philadelphia foster mothers, asked the Supreme Court to hear their case and ensure Catholic Social Services can continue to partner with parents and foster kids. Fulton has fostered more than 40 children over 25 years; Simms-Busch is a former social worker who fostered two young brothers through Catholic Social Services and has now adopted them. 

In the brief, 10 states argued that “[W]orking with a diverse coalition of child-placing agencies provides better services to children in foster care and the potential parents eager to care for them,” and asked the Supreme Court to take the case to protect their ability to work with diverse agencies, including faith-based agencies. 

Meanwhile, 44 members of Congress urged the Court to take the case because “Religiously motivated providers and parents have played a critical role in filling this need for centuries from coast to coast, and to drive them out ignores the critical need and the grave harm to children that would be caused by their loss.”

“The foster care system relies on agencies that reflect the diversity of our communities,” said Lori Windham, senior counsel at Becket, the organization representing the mothers. “That’s why it is so important to have faith-based agencies working alongside agencies that cater to ethnic and racial minorities, children with disabilities, and LGBT families.”

The court is expected to decide whether to take the case sometime this fall. And there are several other similar adoption cases pending at various levels of the judiciary. These growing attacks on faith-based adoption and foster agencies offer increasing evidence that attacks on religious liberty can lead to tangible harm in society. 

Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.

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