U.S. Supreme Court rules that gay adoption in one state must be recognised by other states
Once again, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favour of homosexual couples.
Overturning an earlier decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, America's top magistrates ruled on Monday that a same-sex couple's legal adoption approved by one state should be recognised by other states.
The case involved a lesbian couple identified only with their initials, E.L. and V.L. To be able to raise E.L.'s three biological children together in the face of Alabama's ban on same-sex adoption, the gay couple rented a house in Georgia, where the law was more favourable to homosexuals, enabling them to legally secure adoption rights.
The two lesbians, however, ended up separating from each other after 17 years of being in a homosexual relationship. After the couple split up, E.L. sought to prevent V.L. from visiting their children.
Against E.L.'s wishes, V.L. asked an Alabama court to grant joint custody, and got a favourable ruling. The court agreed that the Georgia adoption order must be honoured even by a another state.
E.L. elevated the case to the Alabama Supreme Court, which overturned the lower court's ruling. The state's highest court said it could not recognise Georgia's adoption ruling back in 2007
V.L. then brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing the constitutional provision that every state must give "full faith and credit" to legal decisions reached in other states.
According to a report from NBC News, Paul Smith, V.L.'s lawyer, argued that the Alabama Supreme Court's decision "places at risk numerous other families in which parents have relied on the stability of adoption judgments issued by the courts of sister states."
The Court agreed with arguments from V.L.'s camp, maintaining that Alabama had an obligation to recognise the decision made by a Georgia state court.
The top court also argued that the Alabama court should also respect Georgia's adoption law, which was upheld by the state's own court.
"It follows that the Alabama Supreme Court erred in refusing to grant that judgment full faith and credit," the Supreme Court justices said in their ruling.
