The decision (pdf) overturns a previous ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court, which refused to recognize the woman’s adoption of the children in Georgia in 2007-a decision the justices on Monday said “comports neither with Georgia law nor common sense”.
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The lesbian couple, identified only by the initials V.L. and E.L., were in a relationship for roughly 16 years and had raised three children together. The argument went like this: Under Georgia law, the Georgia court was supposed to obtain a formal surrender of parental rights from E.L. before allowing V.L.to adopt; it didn’t (because E.L. was asking it to allow the adoption, and anyway Georgia law is unclear).
The petitions filed by the Alabama Policy Institute, the Alabama Citizens Action Program and Elmore County’s probate judge had sought a landmark ruling declaring the state’s ban on gay marriage still stands in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Therefore, they stated, V.L. did not have a right to custody or even visitation with her children.
Judith Schaeffer, vice president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, said the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling reaffirms family’s rights and the Alabama court ignored the Constitution in the case. “Full faith and credit” must be given to the Georgia court’s decision, it said further. It also noted that Georgia law gave the Georgia court that granted the adoption “exclusive jurisdiction in all matters of adoption”.
After the adoption, the couple and the children moved to Alabama.
“I am overjoyed that the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Alabama court decision”, the adoptive mother, identified in legal documents as V.L., said in a statement following the order. Whatever! We really don’t have the authority to overrule the U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges. While LGBT individuals are legally able to adopt in Alabama, only one person in an LGBT couple can do so, making their partner little more than a stranger to the child in terms of legal rights, according to a 2015 AL.com report. It is a tug of war that the Alabama Supreme Court is losing. In December, the court ordered that the Alabama ruling be put on hold while the woman filed a formal appeal of Alabama Supreme Court’s September ruling.
The ruling said the Alabama court’s interpretation of the law was “not consistent” with prior Supreme Court decisions.
The Supreme Court has ruled that an adoptive mother can not be denied her visitation rights after her same-sex relationship has ended. “The vulnerability that we see in cases decided between gay and straight [parents] remains”. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) had denied married gay and lesbian couples in the United States the same rights and benefits that straight couples have long taken for granted.
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“These children have two parents, and should have the security that comes with legal recognition”, Warbelow said.
