A federal court on Thursday sided with an Oregon Christian mother after state officials denied her application in 2023 to adopt foster children because of her religious beliefs about gender and sexuality.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Jessica Bates may begin the process of adopting siblings from foster care while her lawsuit against state officials continues. The panel of judges, which ruled 2-1 in favor of Bates, also blocked the state from enforcing its policy against her mandating that she affirm and encourage the LGBTQ+ identity of an adopted child, in violation of her religious beliefs.
“We hold that Oregon’s policy violates the First Amendment as applied to Bates. We reverse the district court’s denial of preliminary injunctive relief and direct that a preliminary injunction be entered,” Judge Daniel Bress, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote for the majority.
Bress wrote in the order that “adoption is not a constitutional law dead zone.”
“No one thinks, for example, that a state could exclude parents from adopting foster children based on those parents’ political views, race, or religious affiliations,” he wrote. “Adoption is not a constitutional law dead zone. And a state’s general conception of the child’s best interest does not create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.”
He added that judges are “willing to accept on this record that Oregon intended to act in the best interests of children, and not out of hostility or animus toward religion.”
“But that does not make Oregon’s policy neutral toward religion,” he wrote. “For the reasons we have given, Oregon’s policy is not neutral, which means that for Bates’s Free Exercise Clause claim, we must apply strict scrutiny to Oregon’s denial of Bates’s application.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit in April 2023 on behalf of Bates, a single mother of five children who lost her husband in a car collision eight years ago. The lawsuit accuses officials with the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) of violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments by using state policy to push secular views of gender and sexuality, which ultimately bars Bible-believing Christians from adopting or fostering children in the state.
The complaint alleges that state officials told Bates during the adoptive parent training process that she must comply with a state policy mandating that she follow secular ideals in raising her adopted child:
[Bates must] respect, accept and support the race, ethnicity, cultural identities, national origin, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disabilities, spiritual beliefs, and socioeconomic status, of a child or young adult in the care or custody of the Department, and provide opportunities to enhance the positive self-concept and understanding of the child or young adult’s heritage.
Training recommendations in line with state policy require parents to use a child’s “preferred pronouns” and suggest that prospective parents should display “‘hate-free zone’ signs or symbols indicating and LGBTQ-affirming environment (e.g. pink triangle, rainbow, or ally flag),” “whether or not a youth in your care openly identifies as LGBTQ+.”
“One handout Jessica received directs caregivers to ‘[c]elebrate diversity in all forms,’ and ‘[p]rovide access to a variety of books, movies, and materials, including those that positively represent same-gender relationships,’” the complaint states. “The handout…also states that ‘[r]especting [a child’s] gender identity and expression is very important,’ and parents should avoid ‘forcing youth to attend activities (including religious activities …) that are … unsupportive of people with diverse SOGIE.”‘
Bates, who was hoping to adopt a sibling pair from the state’s foster care system, alerted ODHS that she will happily love and accept any child, but she cannot say or do something that goes against her Christian faith, according to the complaint:
Like countless people of faith, Jessica believes that our biological sex carries spiritual significance for who we are and how we should act. Jessica cannot affirm that a male is or should try to be female or vice versa. So Jessica alerted the Department that she will gladly love and accept any child for who they are, but she cannot say or do anything against her Christian faith. The state then put Jessica to a choice: abandon your religious convictions or forgo the possibility of ever adopting any child.
The ODHS ultimately declined her application, allegedly sending a denial letter that cited her belief that “God gives us our gender/sex and it’s not something we get to choose.” The denial letter also allegedly stated that Bates would not support the lifestyle and behavior of a child that may later identify as gay or transgender and cited her religious objection to facilitating sex hormone treatments for children.
ADF ultimately argued that ODHS’s policy penalizes Bates for her religious views, compels her to speak words that violate her beliefs, and deprives her of equal protection of the law because of her faith.
A lower court ruled against Bates in November 2023, and the ADF appealed her case to the Ninth Circuit the following month. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling on Thursday reverses the lower court’s ruling and allows Bates to proceed with the adoption process while litigation continues.
The case is Bates v. Pakseresht, No. 23-4169 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
