Just one day after 2020's historic Election Day, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear a landmark case seeking to revoke non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, along with minority religious groups like Jews and Muslims. The case could hand Christians special rights to discriminate. It relies on overturning a 30-year precedent, something Justice Amy Coney Barrett has said she is not opposed to doing.
The case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, involves Catholic Social Services (CSS) of Philadelphia, which lost in a unanimous Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, but appealed to the Supreme Court.
The City of Philadelphia notified Catholic Social Services in 2018 that it would no longer send children to them to be fostered or adopted because of the religious group's refusal to place children in homes headed by same-sex couples or LGBTQ people.
With the loss of placements comes a loss of taxpayer funds. CSS isn't banned from continuing to adhere to its policies or religious beliefs, it just won't be able to use children the City of Philadelphia was sending them as tools to continue its discriminatory practices.
"In court papers, the group has argued that Philadelphia’s moves unlawfully targeted its right to exercise its religion, which is protected under the First Amendment," CNBC reports. "Philadelphia, on the other hand, has said it is entitled to enforce anti-discrimination policies in order to protect LGBT residents. The city says it is not hostile to religion, noting that its policies apply evenly to religious and secular government contractors."
Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro, writing for the court, said CSS failed to show that the city was motivated by anything other than “sincere opposition to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”
Should the heavily-conservative majority Supreme Court overturn the Third Circuit Court's unanimous ruling, it likely would also need to overturn precedent from a 1990 SCOTUS case, Employment Division v. Smith, which CSS is asking the Court to do.
CSS is represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a multi-million dollar non-profit.
The Becket Fund calls discriminating against same-sex families and LGBTQ people, "Making room for diversity."
The group has had success at the Supreme Court before, notably in the infamous 2014 Hobby Lobby anti-abortion case.
