October 2020 – U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled in favor of New Hope Family Services in a lawsuit against New York state officials for forcing the Christian adoption agency to place children with unmarried and same-sex couples.
The appeals court returned the case to the district court that previously dismissed it. Judge Reena Raggi wrote in the opinion that New Hope had a valid “suspicion of religious animosity,” when New York’s Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) claimed in 2018 it was suddenly in violation of a 2013 state law prohibiting discrimination against adoption applicants on the basis of marital status and sexual orientation.
He wrote, “The agency has, for five years and without objection by OCFS, used recusal and referral to avoid rejecting applicants on the basis of its religious beliefs.”
But “OCFS insisted that [New Hope] ‘compromise’ – i.e., abandon – its own religious views about family and marriage and subscribe to the state’s orthodoxy on such matters,” wrote Raggi.
