Supreme Court denies cert in Adar v. Smith, leaves child without accurate birth certificate

This morning the US Supreme Court declined to review Adar v. Smith, the ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (en banc) that Louisiana need not issue an amended birth certificate naming as the child's parents an unmarried couple who adopted the child in another state. A gay male couple had adopted the child in New York. I have written about the case extensively here, including the

Numerous organizations and scholars join Lambda Legal in asking the US Supreme Court to hear Adar v. Smith

Six friend of the court briefs were filed this week asking the US Supreme Court to hear Adar v. Smith, the case of the gay male couple denied an accurate revised birth certificate for the Louisiana-born child they adopted in New York. Lambda Legal represents the couple and filed a cert petition on their behalf last month.Lambda's press release Thursday summarizes and links to the six briefs.It

Lambda Legal requests US Supreme Court review of Louisiana birth certificate case

This week, Lambda Legal filed a petition for certiorari in the US Supreme Court, asking the Court to hear an appeal of Adar v. Smith. That case, which I have written about since the first court ruling almost a year and a half ago, challenged Lousiana's refusal to grant an accurate amended birth certificate to a child born in Louisiana and then adopted in New York by a same-sex couple.In February

Adar v. Smith continued...why two gay dads still have no birth certificate for their son

When Oren Adar and Mickey Smith sued the state of Louisiana in federal district court, they claimed that the state registrar violated their constitutional rights by refusing to issue a birth certificate for their child listing both of them as parents. The US Constitution requires each state to give "full faith and credit" to the judgments of the courts of other states. So Adar and Smith claimed

Fifth Circuit en banc ruling in Adar v. Smith denies birth certificate to child adopted by two men

Late today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an en banc ruling in Adar v. Smith. As I noted in several earlier posts about this case, Oren Adar and Mickey Smith jointly adopted a child in New York. The child was born in Louisiana, and the couple sought an amended birth certificate listing both of them as parents. Louisiana refused to issue the birth certificate, citing its own law

Adar v. Smith oral argument focuses on procedure

I thought there would be numerous press accounts of the oral arguments last week in Adar v. Smith. After all, it's a case that exemplifies a significant "culture war" between states that fully respect the ability of same-sex couples to raise children, including adopted children, and states that wish to signal their disapproval of childrearing by same-sex couples in every way they can. In addition

Fifth Circuit hears argument en banc tomorrow on case testing interstate recognition of adoption decrees

Early last year, a panel of the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Adar v. Smith that Louisiana was required to issue a new birth certificate naming two men as the parents of a child born in Louisiana, after the couple adopted the child together in New York. The Louisiana registrar of vital records refused to issue the birth certificate with both fathers' names because unmarried couples

New York court upholds California parentage judgment in surrogacy case

Surrogacy is illegal in New York (DC also!). That doesn't stop a New Yorker from going someplace where surrogacy is legal to have child. A gay male couple, DP and TR, did just that. They went to California, where a gestational mother became pregnant using a donor egg and semen from DP. Pursuant to a standard California practice, they went to court there, along with the surrogate and her husband,

Louisiana must issue birth certificate naming two dads

After Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith completed an adoption in New York of a child born in Louisiana, the couple sought a new Louisiana birth certificate for the child containing the names of the two men as her parents. Louisiana refused to do it, saying it was against the state's public policy to recognize two fathers for the child.The federal district court in Louisiana ordered the state to