Legally, she was the adoptive mother of the baby, through the civil union laws of Vermont.
But the divorce decree had granted custody to the natural mother, with visitation rights only to the other mother.
The natural mother violated the court decree for visitation rights. She was fined repeatedly, but still did not maintain the legal visitation she had agreed to in the divorce, nor go through the proper legal channels to change the visitation order.
So the judge finally had to award custody to the other woman, who promised to maintain the visitation rights of the natural mother.
This was a legal battle, with the hope that Virginia law would be interpreted as invalidating civil court rulings of other states. But the Virginia judges, through the Supreme Court, rejected that argument.
Virginia courts are not liberal. The lack of respect for basic law from some conservatives is a bit appalling.
An unjust law is no law at all.
The law of nature dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this....
>> The lack of respect for basic law from some conservatives is a bit appalling <<
When the civil law violates the natural law, then civil disobedience is justified. If Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi can do it, then so can conservatives.
one small problem with that, Virginia has an Amendment to it’s Constitution invaliding all civil unions from other states in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court was wrong and there was another case making its way thru the system. There was supposed to be another hearing in January in Virginia at the Court of Appeals.