Judge rules Michigan adoption agencies can bar LGBTQ couples

A judge in Michigan has ruled that religious-based adoption agencies that contract with the state can refuse to place children in LGBTQ homes. State Attorney General Dana Nessel reached a settlement earlier this year barring faith-based agencies from excluding same-sex couples from adoption services, but on Thursday a federal judge in Grand Rapids shot that down.

In 2017, Nessel, a Democrat who is Michigan's first openly gay statewide officeholder, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sued the state on behalf of two lesbian couples. The couples claimed they...