Today, Lambda Legal and 75 national and state civil rights, child welfare, and faith organizations submitted a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary Alex Azar urging him not to grant South Carolina’s request for an exemption from federal nondiscrimination law for faith-based, government-funded child welfare providers.
Lambda Legal filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and again in the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit over whether government can enforce nondiscrimination laws when contracting with faith-based providers to screen potential foster parents for children in state care. Our briefs, filed on behalf of organizations serving LGBTQ youth, highlight the harm to LGBTQ youth of allowing faith-based child-placing agencies to use religious criteria to reject same-sex couples who wish to serve as foster parents.
NEW YORK, NY (October 1, 2018) -- In the wake of efforts to weaponize the First Amendment in order to cloak discrimination in the mantle of freedom of religion, Lambda Legal today launched a national billboard campaign “No Excuse” underscoring that “religious freedom is no excuse for discrimination.” The first set of billboards were unveiled today at high-traffic locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City.
The Hawai`i Supreme Court today rejected a petition from a Hawai`i bed & breakfast seeking review of a lower court ruling that the business had violated Hawai’i’s anti-discrimination statute when it denied a room to a lesbian couple because of their sexual orientation.
