San Francisco supervisors attack religious freedom.

Back in March 2006, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution stating that the Catholic Church's opposition to homosexual adoption does "violence" to children. It further declared that this particular teaching of the church amounts to "hateful and discriminatory rhetoric."

When the substance of this resolution was challenged in court, Federal Judge Marily Hall Patel issued a ruling that effectively amounts to warfare with the religious belief. She maintained that the San Francisco Board's resolution was constitutional. But her opinion is now being challenged by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic residents of San Francisco. Law Center President Richard Thompson noted that public placements of "passive religious symbols such as the creche and a display of the Ten Commandments" are being deemed unconstitutional and now a government body has expressly attacked the Catholic Church's "moral teaching."

The Law Center's appeal notes that Judge Patel, a Carter appointee who previously served as counsel for the National Organization for Women, went so far as to urge the Archbishop of San Francisco and the local Catholic Charities organization to defy church teaching. She also insisted that the church itself invited the attitude of the Board of Supervisors and that the Catholic "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provoked the debate."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear an appeal of Judge Patel's decision.