New Hope Family Services filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month after the New York Division of Human Rights threatened to investigate and penalize the Christian nonprofit because it places infants with couples consisting of a mother and father committed to each other in marriage.
The threats and demands came even though two federal courts have already found that the state likely violates New Hope’s First Amendment rights by attempting to force it to place children in a manner inconsistent with its religious beliefs.
In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court even more recently held that an effort by the city of Philadelphia violated the First Amendment rights of a faith-based foster-care agency by invoking non-discrimination laws to force the organization to operate in violation of its religious beliefs.
Since its founding more than half a century ago, New Hope has worked with birthmothers and adoptive parents to place more than 1,000 New York children into permanent homes.
New Hope devotes its efforts exclusively to placing infants and very young children for adoption. It has an extraordinary record of successfully finding adoptive parents willing to accept children who are categorized as “hard to place” due to disability, medical condition, race, or other factors.
In recent decades, the vast majority of infants placed by New Hope have fallen into one or more “hard to place” categories. Yet, New Hope has never failed to find a permanent adoptive home for any child entrusted to its care—even infants with severe medical conditions.