A federal judge’s ruling striking down Missouri’s law limiting money for the state’s adoption subsidy program is going to stand. The State Attorney General’s Office has opted to go along with U.S. District Judge Scott Wright’s decision to block the 2005 law from taking effect. The judge had ruled that limiting the incentive payments to lower-income families violated the equal rights of foster children by all but ensuring they would remain wards of the state for longer periods of time. The 2005 law would have denied the subsidies to families earning more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
