Supreme Court ruling puts pressure on KY contract dispute over gay rights and foster care

Republican lawmakers Thursday reissued their calls for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to renew a foster care contract with a Baptist-affiliated foster care agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the City of Philadelphia couldn’t block a Catholic agency from receiving a contract over their refusal to work with same-sex couples.

The Supreme Court’s ruling — the latest in the legal struggle over where non-discrimination protections for LGBT people end and firmly-held religious beliefs begin — has the potential to impact a long-standing contract dispute between the state and Sunrise Children’s Services, a foster care and adoption agency affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

For months, the two have feuded over whether a provision barring discrimination based on sexual orientation needs to be included in the contract, with Sunrise arguing that such a provision would infringe on its religious belief that homosexuality is a sin.

Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday that his administration would review the Supreme Court decision to see if it resolved the conflict and that the administration is still waiting on guidance from the administration of President Joe Biden on the issue.

“We will follow federal law,” Beshear said during a press conference Thursday. “And if that means this case resolves it, it resolves it.”

Dale Suttles, the president of Sunrise, said they look forward to renewed conversations with the Beshear administration.

“We are thankful for the Supreme Court’s resounding 9-0 decision for Fulton today but are ready to move forward as many children and families are in need,” Suttles said.

Whether the case will resolve the conflict is uncertain. The Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that hinged on the fact that there is a provision in Philadelphia’s contract that allowed for exceptions from its policies from other agencies. But it also clearly stated that Philadelphia had violated the first amendment.

“The refusal of Philadelphia to contract with CSS for the provision of foster care services unless it agrees to certify same-sex couples as foster parents cannot survive strict scrutiny, and violates the First Amendment,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

LGBT rights groups pointed to the narrow ruling over Philadelphia’s exception clause as a sign that the case might not have larger implications on other governments. Chris Hartman, with Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, said if Philadelphia had applied it’s non-discrimination requirement without exception, the case would have been ruled differently.

“If Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services is applying its non-discrimination requirements without exception, today’s Supreme Court ruling changes nothing,” Hartman said. “We believe Kentucky still has every right to refuse to make exceptions for discrimination in state-funded foster and adoption care, and they should.”

Republicans, however, pointed to the ruling as a sign that Beshear’s administration should renew their contract with Sunrise. Several high profile Kentucky Republicans, including Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, Attorney General Daniel Cameron and House Speaker David Osborne put out statements urging a contract.

Quarles called the ruling a “victory for religious freedom.” Cameron said he would continue to fight to make sure constitutional rights are upheld for “Kentuckians and faith-based organizations across the Commonwealth.” Osborne, in a joint statement with Speaker Pro Tem David Meade, called on Beshear to “set aside the political rhetoric” and to make Kentucky’s children his priority.

When asked whether they believed that foster children should not be placed with LGBT couples spokespeople for Cameron, Quarles, Osborne and Meade did not say. Instead, they insisted that the issue was about religious freedom, not whether LGBT people can be foster parents.

“That isn’t the issue here,” said Sean Southard, the spokesman for Quarles. “The issue is whether or not the Commonwealth of Kentucky can force Sunrise Children’s Services to violate its religious beliefs.”

While Beshear said federal law will guide the contract dispute, when asked directly whether he was concerned about LGBT children who may be placed by Sunrise Children’s services, Beshear said he’s concerned that any organization would preclude LGBT couples from serving as foster parents.

He also said he is concerned about LGBT youth, who have higher rates of suicide could be placed in an unfriendly environment.

“It concerns me that they would go to a place, and I don’t know that this happens at Sunrise, but any place that tells them that who they are is wrong,” Beshear said. “Because I do not believe they are sinful, I believe they are children of God, just like anyone else on this earth.”

Republicans spar with Beshear on disputed adoption contract over discrimination clause.