Two Big Wins in June For Virginia’s Faith-Based Adoption Agencies!
In a huge triumph for religious freedom and faith-based adoption agencies, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia handed down a 9-0 win for Catholic Social Services after the City of Philadelphia attempted to deny them the ability to continue their great foster care and adoption work because of their religious mission of only placing children with a married mom and dad.
This ruling comes at a critical time for Virginia, as we have been fighting in the legislature over this very issue for the past two years. Earlier this year, HB 1932 was introduced by Delegate Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) seeking to repeal statutory conscience protections for faith-based adoption and foster care agencies, a law The Family Foundation fought hard to put in place in 2012. Delegate Levine first brought the bill in 2020 when, after two committee hearings, it was miraculously defeated because no one would “second” the motion to pass it. This year, the bill was actually passed by the full House of Delegates, but it was thankfully defeated at the last minute in the Senate after tireless efforts. (Read more about it HERE.)
Meanwhile, just ten days ago, Delegate Mark Levine was defeated in the Democratic Primary for his House seat. This unexpected development, along with yesterday’s encouraging Fulton case decision, have provided us with greater hope that the secular Left’s efforts to put faith-based adoption agencies out of business will be significantly tamped down going forward.
The Court in Fulton made it clear: “The refusal of Philadelphia to contract with CSS for the provision of foster care services unless the agency agrees to certify same-sex couples as foster parents cannot survive strict scrutiny and violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
First and foremost, what this means is that more kids can continue to receive the benefit of being cared for by a loving family with a mom and a dad, and for many of them, to be adopted into a forever home. As Chief Justice Roberts rightly acknowledged: “Maximizing the number of foster families and minimizing liability are important goals, but the City fails to show that granting CSS an exception will put those goals at risk. If anything, including CSS in the program seems likely to increase, not reduce, the number of available foster parents.”
This ruling also means that private faith-based charitable organizations can’t be excluded from government partnerships simply because they don’t agree with or practice the government’s current orthodoxy. And, the Court pointed out that religious foster care agencies were not a “public accommodation” like other businesses, including restaurants, hotels, etc., and therefore they’re not to be treated like one when it comes to non-discrimination provisions. That’s good news that will have broader implications, including providing greater protections for private faith-based schools, who are coming under increasing scrutiny.
While the opinion did not go as far as many had hoped for – i.e. discarding the Supreme Court’s infamous 1991 Smith test that makes it harder to bring successful religious exercise infringement claims – it’s an important win that sends a big message that religious freedom is important and still protected.
