Supreme Court upholds gay adoptions across state lines

WASHINGTON - In a victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court has upheld the principle that people who adopt a child in one state have a right to have the adoption honored in another state.

The justices in a unanimous opinion rebuked the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to honor a lesbian's adoption of three children in Georgia once her partner moved with them to Alabama.

Citing the Constitution's Full Faith and Credit Clause, the high court said states have a duty to honor legal agreements made in other states, and there is no exception for gay adoptions.

As the court noted, two women denoted only as V.L. and E.L. were in a committed relationship from 1995 until 2011. With the help of 'assisted reproductive technology,” E.L. gave birth to a child in 2002 and to twins in 2004. V.L. formally adopted the children, and the two women raised them as parents.

But in 2011, the two women ended their relationship, and E.L., who moved to Alabama, denied the other woman's right to visit the children.

When their dispute moved into court, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the original adoption in Georgia was invalid and need not be honored.

Lawyers for V.L. appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing state judges should not be allowed to ignore legal adoptions from other states.

Without bothering to hear arguments, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Alabama high court.

'I am overjoyed that the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Alabama court decision,” said the adoptive mother, V.L. 'I have been my children's mother in every way for their whole lives. I thought that adopting them meant that we would be able to be together always. When the Alabama court said my adoption was invalid and I wasn't their mother, I didn't think I could go on. The Supreme Court has done what's right for my family.”

'The Supreme Court's reversal of Alabama's unprecedented decision to void an adoption from another state is a victory not only for our client but for thousands of adopted families,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights Family Law director Cathy Sakimura, who is representing V.L. 'No adoptive parent or child should have to face the uncertainty and loss of being separated years after their adoption just because another state's court disagrees with the law that was applied in their adoption.”

The Alabama high court ruling 'comports neither with Georgia law nor common sense,” the Supreme Court said Monday. 'It follows that the Alabama Supreme Court erred in refusing to grant that judgment full faith and credit.”