Commentary
Every year in Oregon, thousands of children touch the state’s foster care system. In fiscal 2023, children who eventually leave the system spent a median time of 23.4 months in the state’s custody. For those eventually adopted, the latest available data show that the median time was even longer—34.6 months. And every month, the state houses some children in “temporary lodgings”—an overnight stay in a hotel or a night on the floor of a social worker’s office, for example.I want to help these children. I want to open my home to adopt a sibling pair under 10, loving and caring for them as best I can. But Oregon wouldn’t let me because of my faith—that is, until July 24, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked the state’s actions against me, determining that “Oregon’s policy violates the First Amendment.”