The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a religious freedom case on whether the city of Philadelphia acted unlawfully when it stopped placing foster children with a Catholic foster agency because it does not certify same-sex foster parents.
The nation’s high court heard arguments on behalf of two Philadelphia area foster mothers who are seeking to reverse the decision by the city government to no longer place children with parents who partner with Catholic Social Services.
The Catholic Church has long taught that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
CSS foster parents Sharonell Fulton and Toni Simms-Busch, who have fostered over 45 children through CSS, filed a lawsuit with the help of the religious freedom legal nonprofit Becket. Becket represented the Little Sisters of the Poor in its Supreme Court battle against the Obamacare contraception mandate.
This is one of the first cases that President Trump’s newest Supreme Court appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, has heard.
The case comes as several faith-based foster care groups have in the last decade-plus been forced to halt foster or adoption services due to local or state government pressure requiring foster and adoption groups to work with same-sex couples.
Justice Samuel Alito said the issue here isn’t t ensuring that same-sex couples have the opportunity to be foster parents, but rather, the city can’t stand the idea of adhering to the old-fashioned view about marriage.