The United States Supreme Court today ruled that the City of Philadelphia’s refusal to contract with Catholic Social Services (CSS) violates the 1st Amendment due to the CSS policy of not allowing LGBTQ+ foster parents. The Court’s narrow ruling applies only to the City of Philadelphia’s contract with CSS. The ruling does not create a broad license to discriminate and is very specific to the city of Philadelphia and their nondiscrimination ordinance.
The following can be attributed to Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force:
“The court’s ruling today on Fulton is a narrow one, limited in both nature and scope. The most important take-away is that the Supreme Court unanimously refused to allow a religious entity to have a license to discriminate. We stand in solidarity with the community in Philadelphia that is working for the fair and equitable treatment of those who want to provide safe and loving homes to children and hold in our hearts the many children who will be impacted by this decision.
The work ahead for our community is clear – we must continue to advocate for local and state non-discrimination laws, apply the ones that exist and most importantly, fight for the Equality Act, which would provide long overdue Federal protections to the LGBTQ community and many others.”
