“When it comes to balancing the welfare of children in need of loving homes with the interests of government contractors paid to work with the foster parents who will provide those homes, there is no contest,” said Americans United Legal Director Richard B. Katskee. “The Supreme Court should affirm that the Constitution’s promise of religious freedom does not confer a right to harm others."

AU Student Essay Contest finalist Olivia Bokesch of Columbia, S.C., writes about the intermingling of religion and government that she’s experienced, particularly in the South.

“Aimee Maddonna and her family wanted to help some of the nearly 5,000 children in foster care in South Carolina. Due to government-funded religious discrimination, she was denied that opportunity. So she’s helping children who have been denied the chance to find loving homes another way – by challenging these unconstitutional state and federal policies that allow taxpayer-funded foster care agencies who are acting on behalf of the state to reject qualified parents because of their religion," said AU Senior Litigation Counsel Kenneth Upton