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Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, Inc. Print E-mail
2008 Legal Program - Freedom of Religion

United States District Court

The national ACLU’s LGBT Project, the ACLU of Kentucky and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed this lawsuit against Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (now Sunrise Children's Services) on behalf of a former KBHC social worker who was fired for being a lesbian.  The lawsuit contends that because KBHC receives most of its money from the state to provide foster care for the state’s wards, its religion-based discrimination against gays and lesbians violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. The case also asserts that KBHC is a pervasively sectarian institution that, independent of its employment policies, cannot constitutionally receive government funding.

               

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III dismissed the plaintiff's employment discrimination claims in 2001 and recently dismissed the remaining First Amendment claims.  In his recent ruling, Judge Simpson reasoned that cases brought by Kentucky taxpayers, solely by virtue of their status as taxpayers, do not have sufficient "standing" to challenge expenditures by the Executive branch on First Amendment grounds.  He concluded that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Hein v. Freedom From Religion required dismissal of the case.  The Plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal to the Sixth Circuit on April 28th and will argue that Hein does not apply and that dismissal in this case is inappropriate.

 

 
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