The 3 - November 16, 2025

President Trump issued an executive order recently called, “Fostering the Future for American Children and Families,” described by Alliance Defending Freedom as "an agency-wide effort to promote the welfare of foster children and also protect the constitutional rights of foster parents..."

ADF CEO, President, and Chief Counsel Kristen Waggoner is quoted as saying, "As numerous states have attested, religious families play a critical role in the foster-care system. Yet instead of inviting these loving parents from diverse backgrounds to help care for kids, government officials are shutting the door on them because of their commonly held religious beliefs, putting their ideological agenda ahead of the needs of suffering kids. We applaud the Trump administration for taking important steps to protect the constitutional rights of religious foster parents, open the doors to more qualified and loving families, and ensure that children have every opportunity to thrive and achieve success."  ADF noted it had filed lawsuits against several states due to discrimination against prospective foster parents, a likely reference to states that prevent parents from fostering who will not affirm a child's so-called "gender identity."

As the White House website states, the order "strengthens partnerships with faith-based organizations and houses of worship and directs action to stop discrimination based on religious beliefs, ensuring every qualified person is able to serve families and children in need."

The Obergefell decision affirming same-sex marriage was handed down over 10 years ago. A county clerk in Kentucky responded by refusing to affix her name to marriage licenses for same-sex couples.  That clerk, Kim Davis, has been attempting to rebuff court challenges, and she has been represented by Liberty Counsel, which reported:

... the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Liberty Counsel’s petition for writ of certiorari in Davis v. Ermold, the case involving former Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis. The High Court’s denial of the review was without a ruling on the merits. By declining to hear the case, SCOTUS leaves the wrongly decided Obergefell opinion in place. The Court also leaves unresolved an important constitutional question of whether the First Amendment’s complementary protections of Free Speech and Free Exercise Clause protect government officials sued in their individual capacity for actions taken based on their religious beliefs.

The denial also leaves in place a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that held Davis personally liable for a same-sex couple’s “hurt feelings” from not getting a marriage license from Davis due to her upholding her religious views on marriage.

Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, heard on Freedom's Call on Faith Radio, stated: "By denying this petition, the High Court has let stand a decision to strip a government defendant of their immunity and any personal First Amendment defense for their religious expression. This cannot be right because government officials do not shed their constitutional rights upon election."

Also, the high court ruled that biological sex will continue to used as identifier on U.S. passports.  World Magazine reported, "The U.S. Supreme Court...issued an order temporarily upholding a Trump administration requirement that passports list the holder’s biological sex rather than so-called gender identity. The order came in response to a September Trump administration petition asking the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that would have allowed people who identify as transgender or nonbinary to claim any sex on their passports."

The article went on to say that the "unsigned order" stated that, "...displaying a passport holder’s biological sex no more offends equal protection principles than displaying a person’s country of origin—in either case, the government is merely stating a historical fact."  It added that, "...the Trump passport policy will remain in effect while the case plays out in lower courts."