AR Supreme Court Strikes Down ADHHS Ban On Homo Foster Parents

The Arkansas Supreme Court decided Thursday that the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services lacks the authority to prevent "gays" from parenting foster children. In a unanimous ruling, the Justices upheld Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox's earlier ruling that the ban seeks to regulate "public morality," and accused the DHHS of legislating such on behalf of the General Assembly.

Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote that "there is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual." The court further stated that the ban was "based upon the board's view of morality and its bias against homosexuals," and did not entertain the state's argument that homosexual foster parents would cause academic problems and gender identity confusion.

In a concurring opinion, Associate Justice Robert Brown agreed with the decision, stating that "there is no question but that gay and lesbian couples have had their equal-protection and privacy rights truncated without any legitimate and rational basis in the form of foster-child protection for doing so."

The suit was initially brought by the ACLU on behalf of four Arkansans who claimed they were discriminated against and said that the ban violated their right to privacy and equal protection under the state and U.S. constitutions. The board enacted the ban in 1999 with the reasoning that children should have the benefit of traditional two-parent homes, because they are more likely to do well in such an environment.