A federal district court today heard oral argument in the Trump administration’s effort to have Lambda Legal’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) dismissed.

Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of a married same-sex Texas couple that was denied the opportunity even to apply to serve as foster parents for refugee children by a USCCB affiliate because they did not “mirror the Holy Family.”

“Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin deserve the right and opportunity to tell their story in court,” Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Jamie Gliksberg said. “HHS here is trying to have it both ways, by funding an organization – USCCB – to perform a federal child welfare program using taxpayer dollars despite USCCB’s insistence in the grant that it would perform such services only in a way that discriminates based on the organization’s own religious beliefs, and then to claim HHS can’t be held responsible for that discrimination when it occurred. We hope the court will see through the smoke and mirrors.”

HHS funds the program that turned away Marouf and Esplin exclusively with federal taxpayer money through its Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Specifically, HHS funded USCCB to perform federal child welfare services through its affiliates even though USCCB made clear that it would use the funds to deny such services to members of the public based on USCCB’s religious beliefs.

“The federal government was on notice when it funded USCCB that this organization refuses to provide services to same-sex spouses at taxpayers’ expense,” Gliksberg added. “HHS knew it and funded USCCB anyway. There should be only one criterion for placing foster children – what is in the best interests of the child. Placing children with stable, loving homes such as Fatma and Bryn’s should be the goal, but instead HHS authorized USCCB to use discriminatory criteria bearing no relationship to child welfare, all at the cost of children in federal care.”