Same-Sex Foster Care Ruling Punts Impact on Job Bias, Religion

The ongoing debate surrounding religious exemptions to LGBT anti-discrimination laws remains unsettled for workplaces, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in a same-sex foster parents case sidestepped the clash percolating in courts and Congress.

Thursday’s unanimous decision in Fulton v. Philadelphia found that a city ordinance violated the U.S. Constitution when officials excluded a Catholic charity from part of the city’s foster-care program because the group wouldn’t help place children with same-sex couples.

Attorneys and academics said the ruling fell short of a sweeping re-framing of religious rights under the Constitution, which would have undercut other discrimination statutes such ...