SW News: New Hope Family Services, a faith-based adoption service, has prevailed in court once more against the state of New York in the United States after officials from another state agency tried to penalize the adoption agency for upholding its religious beliefs. The most recent victory for religious liberty follows a prior decision in favor of New Hope by a federal court.

Due to the Christian nonprofit's placement of children with married parents, the New York Division of Human Rights promised to look into the situation and take enforcement action against it.

In New Hope Family Services v. James, the adoption agency argued that because of its religious beliefs, the government shouldn't interfere with it from carrying out its vital task of finding permanent homes for infants with impairments or other "hard to place" issues.

Though federal courts concluded that the state had probably violated New Hope's First Amendment rights by trying to force it to violate its religious convictions in a separate dispute between New Hope and another New York state agency, the state agency still issued the organization with intimidating information requests.
In that case, state representatives consented to cover the $250,000 in legal fees and expenses as well as the promise that New York's Office of Children and Family Services wouldn't again single out New Hope for discrimination due to its religious practices. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys were hired to represent the adoption agency.

In a press statement, ADF Senior Counsel Roger Brooks said that the state of New York was so determined to silence or destroy New Hope Family Services that it violated New Hope's First Amendment rights and launched a barrage of unlawful and discriminatory attacks against the organization. “A faith-based nonprofit organization cannot be forced to decide between going against its religious principles and continuing to assist adoptive parents and children,” he said.
In September 2022, a federal judge ruled New York cannot force or shut down the Syracuse-based adoption agency for declining to provide adoption services to unmarried persons or same-sex couples.

New Hope Family Services said it could only provide adoption services to married heterosexual couples because of religious beliefs after the state amended its Domestic Relations Law in 2010.

For four years, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) threatened to close the nonprofit because of its Bible-based policy. So the Syracuse-based group filed a lawsuit against the OCFS in 2018 claiming the agency violated its freedom of religion.

OCFS executive director Kathy Jerman said it's regrettable that New York ever threatened to shut down the adoption services, through which over 1,000 children were placed with adoptive families since it began in 1965.