Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf
Page Number: 14

10 

FULTON v. PHILADELPHIA 

Opinion of the Court 

Finally,  the  City  and  intervenor-respondents  contend
that the availability of exceptions under section 3.21 is ir-
relevant because the Commissioner has never granted one.
That  misapprehends  the  issue.  The  creation  of  a  formal 
mechanism  for  granting  exceptions  renders  a  policy  not 
generally  applicable,  regardless  whether  any  exceptions
have  been  given,  because  it  “invite[s]”  the  government  to
decide which reasons for not complying with the policy are
worthy of solicitude, Smith, 494 U. S., at 884—here, at the 
Commissioner’s “sole discretion.” 

The concurrence objects that no party raised these argu-
ments  in  this  Court.  Post,  at  6  (opinion  of  GORSUCH,  J.).
But CSS, supported by the United States, contended that
the City’s “made-for-CSS Section 3.21 permits discretionary
‘exception[s]’ from the requirement ‘not [to] reject a child or
family’  based  upon  ‘their  . . .  sexual  orientation,’ ”  which 
“alone  triggers  strict  scrutiny.”  Reply  Brief  5  (quoting
Supp. App. to Brief for City Respondents 16; some altera-
tions in original); see also Brief for Petitioners 26–27 (sec-
tion 3.21 triggers strict scrutiny); Brief for United States as 
Amicus Curiae 21–22 (same).  The concurrence favors the 
City’s reading of section 3.21, see post, at 5–6, but we find 
CSS’s position more persuasive. 

C 
In  addition  to  relying  on  the  contract,  the  City  argues
that  CSS’s  refusal  to  certify  same-sex  couples  constitutes
an “Unlawful Public Accommodations Practice[ ]” in viola-
tion of the Fair Practices Ordinance.  That ordinance for-
bids “deny[ing] or interfer[ing] with the public accommoda-
tions  opportunities  of  an 
individual  or  otherwise 
discriminat[ing]  based  on  his or  her  race,  ethnicity,  color, 
sex, sexual orientation, . . . disability, marital status, famil-
ial  status,”  or  several  other  protected  categories.  Phila. 
Code §9–1106(1) (2016).  The City contends that foster care