Buck v. Gordon

Kristy and Dana Dumont, who seek to adopt a child out of foster care, were turned away from two taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies in 2016 and 2017 because those agencies had a religious objection to accepting same-sex couples. The Dumonts sued the State of Michigan for allowing agencies to use religious criteria to exclude families who could provide loving homes for children. In March of 2019, the State of Michigan settled the lawsuit and announced that it will require all agencies with state contracts to comply with non-discrimination requirements and accept all qualified families.

In response, St. Vincent Catholic Charities– one of the agencies that turned away the Dumonts– sued the State, claiming the Constitution entitles it to a taxpayer-funded contract to perform public child welfare services and to opt out of the contract’s non-discrimination requirement. Because the case is a direct attack on the settlement agreement in the Dumonts’ case, on May 21, 2019, the ACLU filed a motion to intervene on the couple’s behalf.