Advertisement

Lesbian adoption ruling reversed by Alabama Supreme Court

Share via

The Alabama Supreme Court has voided its earlier decision not to recognize a lesbian couple’s adoption that was carried out in another state.

The opinion announced Friday falls in line with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued in March that said the Alabama court erred in declaring the adoption held in Georgia invalid.

One woman bore three children, and her partner adopted them — not in Alabama, but in Georgia — where they believed their chances at adoption would be better.

Advertisement

Alabama courts got involved when the couple broke up after roughly 16 years, and the birth mother tried preventing her former partner from having regular visits with the children.

The Alabama Supreme Court refused to recognize the other woman as a parent, and ruled the couple’s adoption invalid under Georgia law. Alabama justices ruled that the Georgia adoption law didn’t allow a “non-spouse to adopt a child without first terminating the parental rights of the current parents.” The woman appealed to the nation’s high court.

On March 7, U.S. Supreme Court justices said in an unsigned opinion that “the Alabama Supreme Court erred in refusing to grant that judgment full faith and credit.”

Advertisement

The case illustrated legal challenges facing gay and lesbian parents even after the Supreme Court issued a ruling last June that effectively legalized same-sex marriages nationwide. Not participating in the court’s decision was Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was suspended while he faces a judicial ethics hearing linked to his public opposition to same-sex marriage.

MORE IN NATIONAL NEWS

LGBT divide grows as 11 states sue feds over transgender bathroom rule

Advertisement

An Idaho town grapples with an ugly mix — high school football, racism and rape

Louisiana adds ‘blue lives matter’ police protections to hate-crime laws

Advertisement