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Supreme Court Lets Co-Parent Ruling Stand by 365Gay.com from the Web, March 1, 2004 Washington, D.C.-- The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear a custody case involving two California lesbians battling over the custody of their child. The case involved a woman, known only in court papers as Sharon S. who tried try to prevent her former partner from adopting a child the two women were raising together. Sharon S. was the birth mother and had conceived through artificial insemination. The partner, identified in court documents only as Annette, was in the process of adopting the child when the women's relationship ended. After the breakup Sharon S. went to court to block the adoption from going through arguing that second parent adoptions were never legal in the first place. When the appeals court agreed it sent shockwaves through the gay community in California. Then in a 6-1 decision the California Supreme Court reversed the ruling. Writing for the majority, Justice Werdegar held that "second parent adoptions offer the possibility of obtaining the security and advantages of two parents for some of California's neediest children." The decision was hailed by same-sex couples raising children throughout the state. There are approximately 10,000 second-parent adoptions in California. The ruling was made by the same court which will rule on the validity of San Francisco's gay marriages. After her rejection by the state high court Sharon S appealed to the US Supreme Court. John Dodd, the birth mother's lawyer, said her constitutional rights will be violated if an unrelated person is allowed to adopt her child over her objections. "This case carries serious public consequences," Dodd told justices in a filing. Attorney Charles Bird, who represented Annette, said Sharon had consented to joint custody with his client and did not withdraw her support in time. As is the practice of the US Supreme Court it did not explain why it decided not to take up the case (Emphasis added.) |
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