AG seeks to halt adoption ruling, denies anti-Catholic bias

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is asking a federal judge to halt an injunction that lets religious-based adoption and foster care agencies refuse to serve LGBT couples.

The Democrat announced Friday that she filed an emergency motion for a stay Thursday.

She contends U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids, who ruled last month , misinterpreted a 2015 law. She says state law allows child-placing agencies to turn away families in private cases based on their sincerely held religious beliefs, but not when they place state-supervised children.

Nessel says the injunction upended a non-discrimination policy that’s been in place several years.

She also says the judge misconstrued and took out of context her past criticism of the Republican-enacted law. Her office says Jonker wrongly accused Nessel of being anti-Catholic.