New Hope Family Services Vindicated

In what’s being called a victory for children awaiting adoption and religious ministries, the state of New York has agreed to pay $250,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs after trying to close New Hope Family Services because of its religious beliefs.

As CBN News reported in September, a federal judge ruled that New York can not force or shut down the Syracuse-based adoption agency for declining to provide adoption services to unmarried persons or same-sex couples.

U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino in Albany cited free speech protections granting New Hope a summary judgment and ruling the state couldn’t “compel the agency to process applications from, or place children for adoption with, same-sex couples or unmarried cohabitating couples.”

The settlement of the lawsuit, New Hope Family Services v. Poole, in which Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys represented the adoption agency, ensures that New York’s Office of Children and Family Services can no longer target New Hope for its religious policies and that it can continue serving the community by placing children in loving, permanent homes. (Excerpt from CBN News.)