In another blow to folks like the American Family Assocation and anyone who's attempted to enter our bedrooms from the bench, the Arkansas Supreme Court came down on the state's Child Welfare Agency Review Board, which has explicitly prohibited gay couples from being foster parents since 1999.

Arkansas cannot ban homosexuals from becoming foster parents because there is no link between their sexual orientation and a child's well-being, the state's high court ruled Thursday.

The court agreed with a lower-court judge that the state's child welfare board had improperly tried to regulate public morality. The ban also violated the separation-of-powers doctrine, the justices said.

The board instituted the ban in 1999, saying children should be in traditional two-parent heterosexual homes because they would be more likely to thrive.

In its ruling, Arkansas' high court stated specifically the board's attempt to determine "public morality" was unacceptable and testimony from a Review Board member showed its decision was "based upon the board's views of morality and its bias against homosexuals" and not the welfare of children.

Court rejects ban on gay foster parents [AP]