Attorneys for a Jewish couple in Knoxville, Tennessee, asked a state appellate court Thursday to allow their lawsuit against the state over a law that permits foster care agencies to deny services on the basis of religion.
Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram said the Holston United Methodist Home for Children denied them training to be foster care parents because the couple isn’t Christian.
After initially approving the couple for training, the agency said it “only provide[s] adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our [Christian] belief system,” according to a news release about the appeal.
Holston has said it’s protected by a 2020 law allowing providers to refuse to counsel or place children when doing so “violates the agency’s written religious or moral convictions.”
The refusal by Holston caused the couple to lose out on an opportunity to foster a child from Florida.
The pair were later directly certified by the state’s Department of Children’s Services and are caring for a teenage girl whom, court documents indicate, they wish to adopt.
In June, a lawsuit against the DCS was dismissed by a Davidson County, Tennessee, chancery court panel. Three judges, led by chief Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle, said the complaint was moot since the Rutan-Rams were receiving services from the state agency.
The suit also contends the DCS and its commissioner violated the religious freedom and equal protection guarantees in Articles I and XI of the Tennessee Constitution when giving grants to foster care service providers who restrict their services on the basis of religion.
An attorney representing the couple says the current remedy isn’t enough since DCS employees are overextended and can’t provide the level of service a private agency such as offered by Holston, which receives state funding.
“Approval for to be a foster parent isn’t the only kind of service that foster parents need,” Alex J. Luchenitser, associate vice president of Americans United, the public interest law firm working on the case, said in a phone interview.
“And after they’re approved, foster parents continue to need support services, training, services, placement and services relating to particular children, [and] supervision,” he added.
Because other agencies that place foster children and provide group care services in the state also have religious restrictions, the Rutan-Rams say working with such homes “is likely rendered unavailable to them,” according to the filing.
“The hurt, sadness, disappointment, and frustration that the Rutan-Rams suffered when Holston initially refused to serve them are perpetuated by Holston’s continuing refusal to do so and would be exacerbated by refusals by other agencies,” the appellate brief stated.
Mr. Luchenister called the state’s actions a form of religious discrimination.
“When the government funds an agency that discriminates based on religion, then the government is making taxpayer resources available only to people of a particular faith,” he said.
“Public funds that are paid by taxpayers should be made available to all people and benefit all people equally, regardless of what their religious beliefs are,” he concluded.
Spokespersons at the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Times.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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