Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 23, 2020 / 07:30 am
A federal court ruling in New York this week could point to eventual victory at the Supreme Court for Catholic foster care placement in Philadelphia.
On Tuesday, the Second Circuit federal appeals court granted New Hope Family Services, a Christian adoption provider in Syracuse, New York, protection from a state order that threatened it with closure.
New Hope had a faith-based "recusal-and-referral" policy of declining to recommend children for unmarried or same-sex couples, while referring such cases to other agencies. The state's Office of Children and Family Services required New Hope to not decline such cases. New Hope has served 1,000 children over a span of 50 years in its adoption services.
The adoption provider lost its case before a district court, which ruled that it failed to make a case that its First Amendment rights were violated by the state order.