An Illinois judge has ruled that the state has the right to end its foster care partnership with Catholic Charities in four dioceses, despite the Church ministry's contention that it was being dropped on religious grounds.
In his August 18 ruling, Illinois Circuit Court Judge John Schmidt held that “no citizen has a recognized legal right to a contract with the government.”
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Illinois' Department of Children and Family Services had previously told Catholic Charities that it was ending the contract over Catholic Charities' alleged refusal to obey the 2011 “Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act,” which established legal privileges for same-sex and opposite-sex couples in civil unions.
Judge Schmidt, however, bypassed that issue in favor of what he said was the more fundamental question: not the reason why the state had chosen to pull the contracts after four decades, but whether the state was obligated to make or renew a contract with Catholic Charities under any circumstances.
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