Tennessee Sen. Paul Rose, R-Tipton, speaks on his bill allowing faith-based adoption agencies to decline to place children with same-sex couples because of their religious belief during a legislative session, Jan. 14, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. On Thursday, Aug. 24, … Tennessee’s Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the state’s child welfare agency will have to defend itself in a suit challenging a Christian adoption agency’s refusal to train a Jewish couple as foster parents. A three-judge panel said Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram have the right to sue the state Department of Children’s Services, although the trial court — called a chancery court in Tennessee — had ruled the pair could not since the couple found alternative training services when Holston United Methodist Home for Children refused to train them because they weren’t Christian. The court said six other plaintiffs — Jeannie Alexander, Elaine Blanchard, Larry Blanz, Alaina Cobb, Denise Gyauch, and Mirabelle Stoedter — who said the state’s law protecting adoption agencies that act in line with religious or moral beliefs violated their religious freedom also could sue the children’s services department because state funding goes to the adoption agency. The appeals court judges sent the case back […]
