In addition to the cash settlement, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services will also allow New Hope Family Services to continue its religiously-influenced policies.
Alliance Defending Freedom helped represent New Hope Family Services. Senior Counsel Roger Brooks said, “New Hope is a private religious ministry that doesn’t take a dime from the government. Further, New Hope’s faith-guided services don’t coerce anyone and do nothing to interfere with other adoption providers who have different beliefs about family and the best interests of children.”
In 2018, state officials concluded that New Hope was violating a 2013 state law that barred discrimination against adoption service applicants based on sexual orientation and marital status.
Although a district court initially ruled against New Hope, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals revived the lawsuit in 2020, sending the case back to the lower court. The lower court found the state demonstrated “some animosity towards particular religious beliefs.”
That ruling followed a unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that Philadelphia violated the law by excluding a Catholic charity from its foster program because the organization refused to place children with same-sex couples.