Friend,

The most important religious-freedom case of the year is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. We expect a ruling from the Supreme Court any day now.

A bad ruling in Fulton could redefine religious freedom as a constitutional right to discriminate. Especially for LGBTQ people, religious minorities, and the nonreligious, this case could be a serious step backward that throws open the door to religion-based discrimination in foster care and more.

We need to be ready to respond. There’s no way to know exactly which way the justices will rule, but a seismic change in the Court’s interpretation of religious freedom and our need to react could stretch our resources as far as they can go.

AU is ready to face any challenge, but we rely on individual supporters like you for the resources to defend religious freedom. Will you donate $50 to help us prepare for any outcome?

Fulton centers on a taxpayer-funded foster-care agency operated by a religious organization that wants the Court to create a constitutional right to discriminate against qualified families. Why? Because the group wants to reject prospective foster parents who are LGBTQ and therefore don’t follow the agency’s religious tenets.

But look, when a foster-care agency is funded by taxpayer dollars and working under a government contract, administering religious tests and making decisions based on religious belief are blatant violations of church-state separation.

And in the end, children who could be placed in loving homes are forced to remain in the foster-care system solely to appease the religious beliefs of a private organization hired by the government and paid with tax dollars to do the government’s work.

Precedent set in Fulton could also extend far beyond foster care, to all private agencies that receive tax dollars to provide government services. That would leave the most vulnerable among us exposed to unchecked religion-based discrimination.

Join our fight against discrimination, friend: Click here to make a gift of $50 to help us prepare for any outcome.

Thank you for your steadfast commitment to the separation of church and state. We’ll make sure that you hear right away when the Fulton decision comes down.

Sincerely,

Richard B. Katskee
AU Vice-President and Legal Director

P.S. You can read the friend-of-the-court brief that AU filed in Fulton here. It describes the experiences of four families who were rejected as potential foster parents because they failed to pass the religious tests of foster-care agencies hired and paid by the government.