"No Rational Relationship"

Despite the best efforts of the Enemy, America continues to creep toward becoming a just and sensible society. Behold: progress!

Yahoo! News - Ark. Judge Voids Gay Foster Parents Ban:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A state ban on placing foster children in any household with a gay member was struck down when a judge ruled that the state agency enforcing it overstepped its authority by trying to regulate 'public morality.'
Ruling in a case brought by the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox declared the ban unconstitutional Wednesday.
At issue was a 1999 board regulation that said gays cannot become foster parents, and foster children cannot be placed in any home with a gay member under its roof.
The ACLU had argued that the regulation violates the equal-protection rights of gays. But the judge's ruling did not turn on that argument.
Instead, Fox noted that the Arkansas Legislature gave the state Child Welfare Agency Review board the power to 'promote the health, safety and welfare of children,' but the ban does not accomplish that. Rather, he said the regulation seeks to regulate 'public morality' -- something the board was not given the authority to do.
"The testimony and evidence overwhelmingly showed that there was no rational relationship between the ... blanket exclusion (of gays) and the health, safety and welfare of the foster children," Fox wrote.