Alabama must recognize adoption by lesbian in Georgia, SCOTUS rules
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In a summary disposition, the U.S. Supreme Court has reversed an Alabama Supreme Court decision refusing to recognize an adoption granted to a lesbian in Georgia.
The Supreme Court ruled (PDF) on Monday that the full faith and credit clause required the Alabama Supreme Court to recognize the adoption.
The Supreme Court ruled in the case of V.L., who was granted an adoption of three children born to her then-partner, E.L., through artificial insemination. The Georgia court recognized both women as parents in its 2007 decision. V.L. sought enforcement of her parental rights in Alabama after she and her partner broke up.
The Alabama Supreme Court had reasoned that the Georgia court did not properly apply Georgia law and had no subject matter jurisdiction to grant the adoption. Georgia law doesn’t allow a nonspouse to adopt unless the biological parents’ parental rights are terminated, the Alabama Supreme Court said. Because, the biological mother did not relinquish her parental right, the Alabama Supreme Court reasoned, Alabama courts did not have to give full faith and credit to the Georgia judgment.
The Supreme Court disagreed in a per curiam opinion. Though states don’t have to give credit to judgments rendered by courts without subject matter jurisdiction, the jurisdictional inquiry “is a limited one,” the Supreme Court said. Here, the Georgia court that ruled was a superior court given exclusive jurisdiction to decide adoption petitions. As a result, it had the authority to decide the adoption “whatever the merits of that judgment,” the Supreme Court said.
The case is V.L. v. E.L.
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