Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf
Page Number: 5

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 19–123 
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SHARONELL FULTON, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. 
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT 

[June 17, 2021] 

CHIEF  JUSTICE  ROBERTS  delivered  the  opinion  of  the 

Court. 

Catholic Social Services is a foster care agency in Phila-
delphia.  The City stopped referring children to CSS upon
discovering that the agency would not certify same-sex cou-
ples  to  be  foster  parents  due  to  its  religious  beliefs  about 
marriage.  The City will renew its foster care contract with
CSS only if the agency agrees to certify same-sex couples.
The question presented is whether the actions of Philadel-
phia violate the First Amendment. 

I 

The  Catholic  Church  has  served  the  needy  children  of 
Philadelphia for over two centuries.  In 1798, a priest in the
City  organized  an  association  to  care  for  orphans  whose
parents had died in a yellow fever epidemic.  H. Folks, The 
Care of Destitute, Neglected, and Delinquent Children 10
(1902).  During the 19th century, nuns ran asylums for or-
phaned and destitute youth.  T. Hacsi, Second Home: Or-
phan  Asylums  and  Poor  Families  in  America  24  (1997).
When  criticism  of  asylums  mounted  in  the  Progressive
Era, see id., at 37–40, the Church established the Catholic