Catholic Group Sues San Francisco Officials For Gay Adoption Remarks

A Catholic civil rights group announced Monday that it sued the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in federal court for condemning the Catholic Church's opposition to adoptions by same-sex couples.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic citizens of San Francisco.
The league said the suit claims that a resolution passed by the supervisors on March 21 violates the constitutional First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion and separation of church and state.
The supervisors' nonbinding resolution stated, "It is an insult to all San Franciscans when a foreign country, like the Vatican, meddles with and attempts to negatively influence this great city's existing and established customs and traditions, such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need."
The resolution was passed in response to a statement in which then-Archbishop William Levada said earlier in March that "it has been, and remains, my position that Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households."
Levada, who was made a cardinal on March 24 and is now an official at the Vatican, headed the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005.
The Thomas More Center, a Michigan-based public interest law firm representing the league, said the lawsuit contends that the First Amendment "forbids an official purpose to disapprove of a particular religion, religious beliefs or of religion in general."
Robert Muise, the center lawyer handling the case, said, "The Constitution forbids hostility toward any religion."
Muise alleged that "homosexual activists in positions of authority in San Francisco are abusing their authority as government officials and misusing the instruments of government to attack the Catholic Church."
San Francisco city attorney's office spokesman Matt Dorsey said that city officials had not yet been served with the lawsuit and said "it would be premature to comment."
San Francisco archdiocese spokesman Maurice Healy said last month that the archdiocese's social service agency, Catholic Charities of San Francisco, allowed five same-sex couple adoptions out of a total of 136 it arranged beginning in 2000.
Healy said church teaching "precludes adoption by same-sex couples," but said the archdiocese is reviewing its adoption program to look for ways to make sure that children in need find homes.
from KTVU