## Facts

- A married couple applied to adopt through state child-welfare channels and were initially rejected under an agency practice requiring church affiliation.
- The agency later changed its policy to state that lack of religious affiliation or faith should not bar consideration of adoption applicants.
- After the policy change, the couple adopted one child through a licensed private adoption agency, which reported they had high moral and ethical standards.
- A newborn girl (“E”) was placed with the couple by the same private agency.
- With the agency’s consent and recommendation, the couple petitioned the county court for a final decree of adoption.
- At the adoption hearing, the county judge questioned the couple extensively about religion; they testified they had no religious affiliation and did not believe in a Supreme Being.
- The county court denied the adoption, found the couple unfit solely due to their nonbelief, and ordered that the child be returned to the agency (stayed pending appeal).

## Issues

1. Whether a court may deny a petition for adoption solely because prospective adoptive parents lack belief in a Supreme Being.
2. Whether treating nonbelief as disqualifying is consistent with statutory “best interests of the child” and parental fitness standards, and with constitutional requirements of governmental neutrality toward religion.

## Decision

- The state supreme court reversed the county court’s judgment.
- The court held it was legal error to treat lack of theistic belief as rendering applicants unfit, absent evidence that nonbelief would harm the child.
- The court concluded the record showed the couple to be fit and the adoption to be in the child’s best interests, including the placement agency’s favorable recommendation.
- The case was remanded with direction to enter a judgment granting the adoption.

## Legal Principles

- Adoption decisions must apply the statutory “best interests of the child” and parental fitness standards based on concrete, child-centered evidence.
- Religious or spiritual considerations may be relevant in assessing a child’s upbringing, but lack of religious affiliation or faith cannot operate as an automatic bar to adoption.
- Courts may not impose a de facto religious test for adoption when statutes and governing administrative policy do not require it.
- Government action that prefers believers over nonbelievers in access to civil benefits raises serious constitutional concerns and requires more than assumption-based judgments.

## Conclusion

The court required adoption determinations to rest on evidence of fitness and the child’s welfare, not on a categorical disqualification of prospective parents because they are atheists or lack religious affiliation, and ordered that the adoption be granted on the undisputed record of suitability and best interests.


In re Adoption of \"E\", 59 N.J. 36, 279 A.2d 785 (N.J. 1971)