Same-Sex Couple Looks to Supreme Court to Settle Adoption Dispute

Amongst recent news over same-sex marriage and divorce law, a same-sex California filed an appeal to the Supreme Court this week to intervene in their adoption dispute.

The 5-year-old boy was born in Louisiana, a state that does not allow two men as adoptive parents. The couple adopted the boy when he was a year old in 2006. At the time, the couple was living in New York, where the adoption was also finalized. When they tried to have the birth certificate of the child amended in Louisiana, the state’s registrar of vital records and statistics refused their request. The registrar, Darlene Smith, considered “adoptive parents” to apply only to married parents because only legally married couples can jointly adopt a child.

Louisiana state officials said they would list one parent on the amended certificate. The couple, however, feels they have a due process right to both be listed as joint custodial parents. Their lawyers cite issues with Social Security, inheritance, insurance and school registration as several explanations for why this joint listing is so necessary.

After the 5^th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against them in April, the couple now hopes the high court can help them change a policy they call “unconstitutional.”

You can read the full article here: CNN