The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Thursday that an Oregon mother is free to begin the process of adopting siblings from foster care without violating her religious beliefs about human sexuality while her lawsuit against state officials continues.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Jessica Bates filed a lawsuit in April 2023 challenging an Oregon Department of Human Services rule that categorically excluded her from adopting any child—no matter their age or beliefs—because she would not lie to children and tell them that girls can be boys and vice versa. Bates asked the 9th Circuit to lift the state’s gender-ideology exclusion and allow her to re-apply to adopt, free of discrimination, while her lawsuit continues. The court ordered ODHS to reconsider Bates’ application because she will likely succeed in showing that Oregon’s exclusion violates the First Amendment.
“Every child deserves a loving home, and children suffer when the government excludes people of faith from the adoption and foster system. Jessica is a caring mom of five who is now free to adopt after Oregon officials excluded her because of her common-sense belief that a girl cannot become a boy or vice versa,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Litigation Strategy Jonathan Scruggs, who argued before the court on behalf of Bates. “Because caregivers like Jessica cannot promote Oregon’s dangerous gender ideology to young kids and take them to events like pride parades, the state considers them to be unfit parents. That is false and incredibly dangerous, needlessly depriving kids of opportunities to find a loving home. The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade.”
“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,” the 9th Circuit wrote in its ruling in Bates v. Pakseresht. “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.”
Bates applied to become certified to adopt children from foster care two years ago. Oregon’s DHS, the agency that oversees child welfare programs, denied her application because Bates could not agree to use inaccurate pronouns to refer to a child or to take children to pride parades.
Although Bates told ODHS officials that she would happily love and accept any child placed with her, officials rejected her application, making her ineligible to adopt any child—even infants or children who share her religious beliefs.
In January, a broad coalition of foster and adoptive parents, religious liberty groups, free speech and family advocates, 20 states, and detransitioners filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the 9th Circuit in support of Bates. The briefs joined ADF in arguing that ODHS’s policy needlessly penalizes Bates and many other people of faith for their religious views, compels parents to speak words that violate their conscience, and deprives children in need of the opportunity to find loving homes.
Rebekah Schultheiss, one of more than 4,800 attorneys in the ADF Attorney Network, serves as local counsel on behalf of Bates.
