NCJ Number
116494
Journal
Yale Law Journal Volume: 98 Issue: 3 Dated: (January 1989) Pages: 617-637
Date Published
1989
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article examines a series of law suits challenging a New York statute that provides for placing children in foster care according to their religious backgrounds, focusing on the first amendment establishment clause problems that arise when a State is involved in the placement and care of foster children.
Abstract
The article compares foster care with other challenges to the government to avoid involvement in religious affairs and points out that both legitimate governmental and religious interests overlap and conflict in the State's role in foster care. The article concludes that strict separation of governmental and religious interests are not possible in foster care and the establishment clause cannot be invoked to prevent governmental involvement. The State should be neutral towards religion and sensitive to the effects of its actions. In foster care situations, then, the State's policy should be judged by its tendency to give foster care children the same religious upbringing they would have had if the State had not intervened. 124 footnotes.