Don't be fooled by this story. I am sure that Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown are salivating with glee at the thought of exploiting this story to harm marriage equality. But still, it is a victory against unfair "religious exemptions:"
From The Advocate:
And from Windy City Times comes more details:
From The Advocate:
The state of Illinois is within its rights to decline to renew contracts with Catholic Charities for adoption and foster-care services, a judge ruled today.
The state had ended its contracts this summer with four Catholic Charities agencies that refused to consider couples in civil unions, including gay couples, as adoptive or foster parents, but instead wanted to refer them to other agencies. Civil unions became available in Illinois June 1.
Sangamon County circuit judge John Schmidt, who heard arguments from both the state and Catholic Charities Wednesday, ruled today that the state did not violate the rights of the Catholic Charities agencies by ending the contracts, Windy City Times reports.
And from Windy City Times comes more details:
The issue arose with the passage of the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, which conferred the same legal rights to same-sex couples in civil unions as married couples and went into effect June 1.
Brejcha said that language in the civil union act allowed the charities to send civil union couples and unmarried people to other foster care agencies. He further argued that the state had ended its 40-year relationship with the charities without warning or reason.
However, attorneys for the state argued that the charities had no right to contracts in the first place, and that it would be illegal for the state to offer contracts that violated civil union law.
"The state has the freedom to set the limits of its contracts," said Deborah Barnes, an attorney with the Office of the Attorney General. "It wasn't arbitrary and capricious, the ending of this 40-year relationship… the legal landscape has changed."
Also arguing against the charities was the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) , which was granted the right to intervene in the suit on behalf of a lesbian and children who are wards of the state.
Karen Sheley, a lawyer with the ACLU said that a refusal to place children with same-sex civil union partners would harm LGBT children in foster care and discourage LGBT couples from becoming foster parents.
"When they send [ a case ] to another agency, it doesn't solve the problem," she said. "It's still discrimination."
However, Schmidt said that arguments about discrimination from both sides would not impact his decision.
He repeatedly discouraged arguments related to LGBT and religious rights and urged for focus on property rights.
"Do you or do you not have a legally protected property interest?" Schmidt asked.
Brejcha said that licenses from the state which allowed the charities to carry out foster care work were a property interest. Attorneys for the state said that such licenses do not guarantee contracts and that the charities were not being forced to participate now that the law has changed.
I really wish that someone would try to pin the Catholic Church down on its position. What is it that triggers Catholic Charities' withdrawal from charitable services - gay marriage, civil unions or any recognition of same sex couples? Or do they just make it up as the go along?
ReplyDeleteBecause as far as I can tell, there is no consistency in its position. For example, DC had domestic partnership prior to its enacting marriage. Yet the church continued to enter into contracts with DC. Only the passage of marriage triggered a Catholic Charities reaction. In CA, the state had full "marriage equivalent" domestic partnerships for years. When Prop 8 was crafted, its authors deliberately left those legal arrangements in place, and the Catholic Church supported Prop 8 as written. Yet in IL, civil unions (the equivalent of CA's domestic partnerships) triggers a withdrawal. And in IA, NH, VT, CT, and 8 other states with civil unions, there seems to be no issue at all.
One could be forgiven for concluding that the Catholic Church, realizing that there are no consequences of gay marriage, decided to create one.
To try to clarify: each diocese of the church has a charity organization - usually referred to as Catholic Charities, but sometimes using different names, and headed nominally by the bishop. This is not a monolithic organization. Here in IL, when Cook County enacted domestic partnerships, the Chicago Archdiocese exited the adoption and foster care business, citing their inability to get insurance. There was also the issue of a large lawsuit which was behind that inability. Whatever the reason, other agencies hired the caseworkers and took on their caseloads. It was more or less transparent to the children and their foster families. Rockford Diocese followed suit earlier this summer, citing the civil unions law as its reason. Same result with the kids/families.
ReplyDeleteHere's what keeps getting lost in these articles: Catholic Charities was administering this program for the state, which meant that they were using their Catholic criteria to determine who was and wasn't fit to be a foster parent. Foster parents are paid a stipend by the state (taxpayer money) for each child they care for. So Catholic Charities was determining who was able to get state money and who wasn't, e.g. funneling these monies to those they deemed "morally fit."
Catholic Charities is still able to arrange private adoptions in IL (blue-eyed blond infants carry a hefty premium, I'm sure). Whether or not they do, is anyone's guess. As for foster care, they are still able to operate a foster care program as they wish, but they cannot use state taxpayers' money to do so.