Justice Barrett Examines Religious Liberty Precedent in LGBTQ Foster Parenting Case
Last week, the Supreme Court heard its first case addressing religious freedom and LGBTQ civil rights with Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a member of the Court. The case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, concerns whether Philadelphia can require organizations it partners with to accept same-sex couples as foster parents.
The city of Philadelphia partners with roughly thirty private organizations — both religious and secular — to find foster parents for children in Philadelphia’s foster care system.
In 2018, Philadelphia learned that two of its partner organizations, Catholic Social Services and Bethany Christian Services, had religiously motivated policies against placing children with same-sex couples. Philadelphia views these policies as violating Philadelphia’s Fair Practices Ordinance.
As a result, Philadelphia decided to stop sending foster care placement requests to these organizations unless they changed their policies.
In response, Catholic Social Services and several foster parents affiliated with that agency sued. They argue that Philadelphia’s response violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections of religion and speech. Two lower federal courts ruled in Philadelphia’s favor. It is now up to the Supreme…
