The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday stopped an Alabama court from cutting off parental rights to a lesbian who had adopted her partner’s children, the Associated Press reported.
Credit: Bill Rankin
Credit: Bill Rankin
The plaintiff, who is from Georgia, adopted the three children born to her partner when the two were a couple. The adoption was approved by a Georgia court in 2007. But when the couple, living in Alabama, split up after 16 years together, the children’s biological mother asserted that the Georgia adoption was invalid and that her ex-partner should not have visitation rights.
The Alabama Supreme Court, siding with the biological mother, voided the Georgia adoption in September.
Monday’s action by the U.S. Supreme Court sets aside that decision, at least temporarily, while the high court decides whether to hear the woman’s appeal, the AP said.
"I adopted my children more than eight years ago to be sure that I could always be there to protect them,” the woman, known in court papers as V.L., said in a statement issued by her lawyer. “This terrible Alabama decision has hurt my family and will hurt so many other families if it is not corrected.”
Alabama’s 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."
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