A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Thursday that Oregon officials cannot prevent a Christian mother, Jessica Bates, from adopting solely because she objects to LGBT ideology.
The court found that Bates was wrongfully denied an adoption application by the Oregon Department of Human Services, reversing a lower court decision.
Circuit Judge Daniel A. Bress, a Trump appointee who authored the majority opinion, stated that Oregon was wrong to require adoptive parents to “respect, accept, and support” the self-identified gender identity and sexual orientation of a child.
He wrote, “We hold that Oregon's policy violates the First Amendment as applied to Bates. We reverse the district court's denial of preliminary injunctive relief and direct that a preliminary injunction be entered.”
Judge Bress emphasized that “adoption is ‘not a constitutional law dead zone’ and that ‘a state's general conception of the child's best interest does not create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.’” He added, “Oregon's rule, as reflected in the [Resource and Adoptive Families Training] materials, quite clearly restricts and compels speech based on both content and viewpoint,” which he found unconstitutional.
Bates, a widowed mother of five, applied in May 2022 for adoptive parent certification through the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) so she could adopt two children under the age of nine. However, her application was denied because she refused, on religious grounds, to adhere to the trans-identified child's preferred pronouns.
In April 2023, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a complaint on Bates’ behalf against ODHS and Malheur County officials, accusing them of violating her First Amendment rights.
Jonathan Scruggs of the ADF, who argued the case for Bates, celebrated the ruling, stating, “Jessica is a caring mom of five who is now free to adopt after Oregon officials excluded her because of her common-sense belief that a girl cannot become a boy or vice versa.”
