Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf
Page Number: 29

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

7 

ALITO, J., concurring in judgment
ALITO, J., concurring in judgment 

went so far as to prohibit the placement of any children in
homes that CSS had previously vetted and approved.  Ex-
emplary  foster  parents  like  petitioners  Sharonell  Fulton
and  Toni  Lynn  Simms-Busch  are  blocked  from  providing
loving  homes  for  children  they  were  eager  to  help.19    The  
City apparently prefers to risk leaving children without fos-
ter parents than to allow CSS to follow its religiously dic-
tated policy, which threatens no tangible harm. 

CSS  broadly  implies  that  the  fundamental  objective  of
City  officials  is  to  force  the  Philadelphia  Archdiocese  to 
change its position on marriage.  Among other things, they 
point to statements by a City official deriding the Archdio-
cese’s position as out of step with Pope Francis’s teaching 
and 21st century moral views.20  But whether or not this is 
the City’s real objective, there can be no doubt that Phila-
delphia’s ultimatum restricts CSS’s ability to do what it be-
lieves the Catholic faith requires.

Philadelphia argues that its stance is allowed by Smith 
because, it claims, a City policy categorically prohibits fos-
ter care agencies from discriminating against same-sex cou-
ples.  Bound by Smith, the lower courts accepted this argu-
ment,  320  F. Supp.  3d  661,  682–684  (ED  Pa.  2018),  922
F. 3d 140, 156–159 (CA3 2019), and we then granted certi-
orari,  589  U. S.  ___  (2020).    One  of  the  questions  that  we 
accepted  for  review  is  “[w]hether  Employment  Division  v. 

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in one region); Lawrence, Georgia Foster Care System in Crisis Due to 
Shortage  of  Foster  Homes,  ABC  News  Channel  9  (Feb.  15,  2017), 
https://newschannel9.com/news/local/georgia-foster-care-system-in-crisis-
due-to-shortage-of-foster-homes (reporting on a county in Georgia with
116 children in need of care but only 14 foster families). 

19 See App. to Pet. for Cert. 19a, 64a, 140a; see also App. 59 (plaintiff
Cecilia Paul testifying that, at the time of the evidentiary hearing below, 
she had no children in her care due to the City’s policy). 

20 Id., at 182, 365–366 (describing Department of Human Services com-
missioner’s comments to CSS that “it would be great if we followed the 
teachings of Pope Francis” and that “things have changed since 100 years
ago”).