Michigan State has agreed to pay a Catholic ministry the sum of $250,000 in attorney’s fees for attempting to force the ministry to violate its religious beliefs by putting children in LGBT homes.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), in line with a stipulated court order and judgment approved by a federal judge recently, admitted that it likely would not win a lawsuit filed by the ministry in respect of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case that is separate. 

The department agreed to pay $250,000 in attorney’s fees to Catholic Charities West Michigan, a non-profit that sued the state in 2019.  

The controversy started in 2019 when Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, disclosed that every foster care and adoption agency that has contract with the state must liaise with LGBT couples. Catholic Charities West Michigan then filed a lawsuit against the state to argue that Nessel’s order violated state law, the Michigan Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. 

According to the lawsuit, Catholic Charities West Michigan affirmed Catholic teaching that “marriage is the sacramental union of one man and one woman.”

The ministry has put 4,500 children in homes over the past year and its legal representative, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said without a state contract, Catholic Charities “would be required to immediately suspend their foster care and public adoption ministry.” 

MDHHS also agreed as part of the court order that it would not end a contract with Catholic Charities because of its religious beliefs. 

The court order was applauded by ADF 

Jeremiah Galus, a Senior Counsel of ADF said: “More adoption and foster care providers mean more children have the chance to be adopted or cared for by a foster family.”

“Catholic Charities West Michigan meets a critical need as one of the region’s largest social service providers, reuniting children with their birth parents and placing foster kids in loving homes. We are pleased Catholic Charities can continue its vital mission serving vulnerable families in Michigan without being punished by the government simply because it’s operating according to its religious beliefs—the very reason the ministry exists in the first place.” 

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2021 has changed the legal landscape on cases like that. Last year, the apex court ruled that Philadelphia violated the First Amendment when it attempted to force a Catholic foster care agency to put children in same-sex homes.