Detroit, Mich., Mar 8, 2018 / 17:02 pm
A lawsuit threatening a Catholic adoption service is political maneuvering that will do nothing to help children in need of loving homes, families and supporters told a federal court in Michigan during oral arguments this week.
In their latest dispute against a religious entity, Dumont v. Lyon, the ACLU sued in September in order to prevent Michigan from working with faith-based adoption agencies that hold traditional views about marriage, including St. Vincent Catholic Charities.
A 2015 law, which was passed with the backing of the Michigan Catholic Conference, prevents state-funded adoption and foster agencies from being forced to place children in violation of their beliefs. The law protects them from civil action and from threats to their public funding. When the law was passed, about 25 percent of Michigan's adoption and foster agencies were faith-based.
Shamber Flore, a young woman who was adopted through the foster care program at St. Vincent's, said that children in foster care need more access to families with loving homes, and that the ACLU's lawsuit endangers that access.