PERSPECTIVE ON THE JUDICIARY : The Court That Cut the Baby in Half : Americans’ faith in the judicial system was dealt a blow when a 4-year-old was taken from his adoptive parents.

There is an anger brewing in this country at this moment. It is not politically inspired, it knows no right and left, just right and wrong. But if it is not dealt with, we run the risk of a massive loss of faith in American justice. It is the taking of 4-year-old Richard from his family by order of the Illinois Supreme Court.

If America is in decay, it is not the Oklahoma City bombing that future generations will regard as our generation’s symbol of this decay. As evil as the bombing was, what matters is that the government and citizens were repulsed by it. Every society has evil within it. What distinguishes civilized from less-civilized societies is the way in which its leadership acts. What most signified the descent of Germany into evil was not the presence of Nazis in the streets; it was the presence of Nazis on its judicial benches. When judges do evil, society is doomed.

History will note that in the state of Illinois in April of 1995, judges-- Supreme Court judges-- committed evil. They didn’t merely make a mistake or take a controversial stand. They actually did evil. They destroyed a perfectly innocent child’s life in the name of law.

On April 30, a 4-year-old boy was taken from the only parents he ever had, from his brother, the only sibling he ever had, from the only home and room he ever had, and given over to a man whom he has never seen, solely because that man’s sperm helped conceive this child.

This was not some wrenchingly difficult decision between two competing rights. Two lower courts in Illinois had no trouble ruling in favor of the child. It is clear to anyone who doesn’t believe that blood is more important than all else that this child loved his parents and that they loved him, and that this, not connection to a sperm donor, is what children need. But five members of the Illinois Supreme Court overruled the two lower courts and against elementary common sense. It is common sense that you don’t take a 4-year-old from his family, isn’t it?

A famous ancient Hebrew tale relates that King Solomon was confronted by two women, each claiming to be the mother of a baby. The wise king ruled that the child be cut in half and each mother be given one of the halves. One woman agreed. The other asked that the baby be given to the other woman. Clearly, this woman loved the child far more, and it was to her that King Solomon awarded the child. The judges in Illinois ruled the opposite: Give the child to the party that would cut the child in half.

The pastor of Richard’s church, the Rev. Fred Ade, said, “When he was carried off to that van, it was the worst experience I have ever had in my life. I have buried children from gunshot wounds. This was worse.”

That is why this case is not disappearing. Too many Americans go to sleep every night thinking about Richard, frightened for him and his family. For the first time in my life, I am also frightened of the power of the state. We have witnessed a legal kidnaping.

Most Americans value love far more than blood. Certainly the supreme courts of New Mexico and Colorado do. In its decision to keep a little boy with his adoptive parents, even though it found that the biological father’s rights had been improperly denied, the New Mexico court wrote, “We are directed to do otherwise [than the Illinois court] not only by the letter of the law but also compassion for the people involved.” And in a swipe at the five justices in Illinois, the Colorado Supreme Court wrote, “In controversies affecting the custody of an infant, the interest and welfare of the child is the primary and controlling question.”

The legal community thinks the ruling is a farce, but needs to do more than simply feel embarrassed. Coupled with widespread contempt at the defense’s tactics in the O.J. Simpson’s trial, there is a widespread feeling in America that the American judicial system has little to do with justice.

It is just too sad that the parents of this child believed in the American judicial system and thought that a legal adoption was binding. It’s a shame they believed two courts’ rulings on the child’s behalf would be enough in America. They should have left the country with their child the moment it looked like they would take a 4-year-old boy away from his family.

In addition to ruining a family, the lasting legacy of those who sat on the Illinois Supreme Court in 1995 will be a decreased belief in our judicial system. And as judges in a past generation who ruled that blacks were not fully human entered history infamously, so, too, the judges who have ruled children are not fully human will have guaranteed their lasting notoriety.

For our foundering society’s sake, for the sake of children and for that poor boy and his family in Chicago, let us pray that the men and women of the U.S. Supreme Court decide to hear this case. The two United States Senators from Illinois, both Democrats, and the Illinois governor, a Republican, have filed a friend of the court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. It is not an exaggeration to say that alongside the fate of a 4-year-old boy and his family, the reputation of American law is at stake.