A unanimous US Supreme Court ruled yesterday in favour of a Catholic foster care agency in its biggest religion case of the year. The agency does not place children with same-sex couples because it believes in the right of children to be raised by a mother and father, where possible.

Justices said officials in Philadelphia violated the First Amendment by refusing to accommodate the agency’s faith-based ethos.

Legal precedent requires the government to offer religious exemptions when it’s willing to offer them for other purposes and can achieve its policy goals through other means, wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion.

Catholic Social Services “seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else,” he wrote.