Philly agrees to pay $2M in settlement over LGBTQ foster care lawsuit

Civil Rights

The decision was unanimous. On June 17, in a 9-0 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found the City of Philadelphia violated the First Amendment rights to religious freedom of Catholic Social Services (CSS) in the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.

The Court determined that Philadelphia’s refusal to contract with CSS for the provision of foster care services unless CSS agreed to certify same-sex couples as foster parents violated the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment.

Now the city of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $2 million in legal fees to CSS and to renew the Catholic foster care agency’s contract without requiring their adherence to the city’s nondiscrimination policy.

PA Jury Awards $33M IVC Filter Trial

IVC Filter

A Philadelphia jury has awarded more than $33 million to a woman who was injured as a result of a defectively designed blood filter.

The jury in the case, captioned Reed-Brown v. Rex Medical, awarded plaintiff Tracy Reed-Brown $1,045,764 million in future medical expenses and $2,322,650 million in future pain and suffering. The jury also found that defendant Rex Medical’s conduct merited a punitive damages award, and, following an abbreviated argument session, awarded an additional $30,315,726 in punitive damages.

Catholic Priests Abused 1,000 Children in Pennsylvania

Catholic Sexual Abuse

Bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years, persuading victims not to report the abuse and law enforcement not to investigate it, according to a searing report issued by a grand jury on Tuesday.

The report, which covered six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses and found more than 1,000 identifiable victims, is the broadest examination yet by a government agency in the United States of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The report said there are likely thousands more victims whose records were lost or who were too afraid to come forward.

It catalogs horrific instances of abuse: a priest who raped a young