Justice Department to Sue Oregon on Jan. 30 Over Faith-Based Foster Care Rule

Filing Set for Friday in Portland

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to file a civil-rights lawsuit against Oregon on January 30, challenging a state rule that bars faith-based foster-care agencies from participating in the placement system if they require foster parents to affirm religious statements, according to two pastors familiar with the case. The complaint, which will be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland, names the Oregon Department of Human Services and two state officials as defendants, the pastors said.

The lawsuit will argue that Oregon Rule 413-120-0400 violates the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment and the equal-protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment by excluding religious agencies while allowing secular providers to operate under the same licensing standards, according to a religious-liberty lawyer who reviewed an advance copy of the filing. The rule currently requires all foster-care contractors to accept all qualified families regardless of whether those families agree with the agency's religious mission, the lawyer said.

Alliance Defending Freedom, the Arizona-based legal group, is expected to join the case as counsel for three Oregon churches that operate foster and respite-care ministries, according to a church administrator involved in the planning. The churches collectively placed 127 children in homes during the 2024 fiscal year and received roughly $3.2 million in state reimbursement payments before Oregon began enforcing the contested rule in October 2025, the administrator said. The administrator identified the three ministries as Grace Harbor Family Services in Portland, Salem Baptist Children's Home, and Newberg Christian Family Support. A spokesman for Alliance Defending Freedom said the group expects to file a parallel motion to intervene by February 5, though the organization declined to confirm its role before the Justice Department complaint is public.

Background and Religious-Liberty Context

The dispute traces back to a 2023 Oregon administrative rule change that removed religious exemptions for foster-care placement agencies. State officials argued at the time that the change was necessary to comply with federal nondiscrimination requirements attached to Title IV-E foster-care funding. The rule has since forced Catholic Charities of Oregon, Bethany Christian Services, and several smaller Protestant ministries to choose between their statement-of-faith requirements and continued state contracts, two pastors familiar with the case said.

The pastors said the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division notified state attorneys on January 27 that a complaint was imminent and invited settlement discussions. Oregon's attorney general's office declined to comment Wednesday evening. A spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Human Services said the agency had not received service of any complaint and would not speculate on pending litigation.

A draft of the complaint argues that Oregon's rule is not neutral because it contains exceptions for secular agencies that limit placements based on geography, language, and clinical specialization while refusing similar flexibility to religious agencies, the religious-liberty lawyer said. The lawyer described the planned filing as the most significant federal religious-exercise enforcement action in foster-care policy since the Supreme Court's 2021 decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.

The church administrator said the three ministries have already spent roughly $470,000 on legal fees and private fundraising since October 2025, when the state began requiring all contractors to sign a revised nondiscrimination attestation. The administrator said the attestation, a four-page document issued by the Oregon Department of Human Services on September 12, 2025, effectively prohibited agencies from asking foster parents to sign statements affirming biblical marriage and traditional sexual ethics. At least 34 foster families affiliated with the three ministries withdrew from the program between October and December 2025 rather than sign the attestation, the administrator said.

Congressional Oversight and Next Steps

Two congressional aides briefed on the plan said House Republicans are preparing a parallel oversight inquiry into whether the Oregon rule violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The aides said a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing is tentatively scheduled for February 18 in Washington, though no witnesses have been publicly named.

The pastors said the three church agencies intend to keep their foster homes open even if the federal case is delayed, relying on private donations that totaled roughly $890,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025. The Justice Department lawsuit, if successful, could restore an estimated $3.2 million in annual state funding and reopen placement contracts that the agencies say were effectively terminated on October 1. The aides said the subcommittee may also examine whether the Oregon rule has reduced the total number of available foster homes in the state, where officials reported a shortage of 1,200 licensed beds in December 2025.

Watch for the complaint to be docketed by 10 a.m. Pacific time on January 30, with a Justice Department press statement expected the same morning. State officials have 21 days to respond after service. The Alamo Post will publish the full complaint once it is filed.