Court hears gay dads' La. birth certificate case

[JoeProBono]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The state of Louisiana is asking a federal appeals court to let it list just one of two adoptive gay parents' names on their child's birth certificate.

A full panel of 16 judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in the case of parents Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith. They now live in Florida and adopted their son after he was born in Shreveport in 2005.

[JoeProBono]

Oren Adar

US Constitution requires state officials across the country “to respect the parent-child relationships established by adoption decrees, regardless of the state where that decree is entered.”

Adoptive parents, Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, who now live in San Diego, were living in Connecticut when they obtained an emergency adoption decree in New York state court to adopt the baby who was born in Shreveport, La. in 2005. The baby’s mother had transferred him to Adar and Smith’s care shortly after the boy’s birth.

A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the state of Louisiana to issue an amended birth certificate for the child of the men stating that the State of Louisiana is ordered to put the names of both fathers on the new certificate.

The ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a 2008 ruling by US District Court Judge Jay Zainey. He ordered the Louisiana Office of Public Health and Vital Records and registrar Darlene W Smith, who had overtly discriminated against the parents, to supply an amended birth certificate for the boy that shows Adar and Smith as his parents, Courthouse News Service reports

Lambda Legal, a national civil rights organization based in Los Angeles, represented Adar and Smith sued on behalf of the couple in October 2007, saying Louisiana Vital Records Registrar Darlene Smith violated the U.S. Constitution in denying them an accurate birth certificate, which threatened the boy’s enrollment in a health care plan and treated him like a second-class citizen.

Clearly showing an aversion to the fact that the boy had two fathers, Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, appealed the Zainey decision, arguing that state law wouldn’t have allowed such an adoption in the first place. The Vital Records office claimed that it would have supplied a birth certificate if just one of the parents had been listed in the New York record as adopting the boy. This shows the Office of vital records attempting to assert its own ideas as to....

http://lezgetreal.com/2010/02/5th-circuit-appeal-court-upholds-childs-right-to-both-fathers-on-birth-certificate/

[Mr. K]

How in the hell do these stupid homos have so much time and money to be spending chasing after idiotic laws?

[manc]

poor child, imagine the sick vile things this kid will see, homosexual parades, these two men kissing and sleeping together etc.

Wish the courts would just get a grip and order the child to be with a normal family instead of this social experiment the left like to do.

[DannyTN]

And this is why marriage needs to be defended at the federal level.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

Mickey Ray Smith sounds like a serial killer’s name!

[Keith in Iowa]

Is either one the biological dad?

The Birth Certificate should only list the names of the biological parents.

[BuckeyeTexan]

If NY allowed the adoption, NY should issue the amended BC. LA should not be forced to amend its vital records to reflect an adoption that is not permitted under LA law.

[JoeProBono]

NEW ORLEANS — The question of whether Louisiana must put both parents’ names on birth certificates of children adopted by gay couples goes before 16 federal appeals court judges on Wednesday.

Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith of San Diego want the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a unanimous three-judge ruling and a district judge’s decision that both of their names must go on their son’s birth certificate.

Adopted children get new birth certificates with their new parents’ names on them. But the state Attorney General’s Office contends that Louisiana’s registrar cannot put both Adar’s and Smith’s names on their son’s birth certificate because they could not have adopted him together in Louisiana.

The earlier orders would make the state break its own vital records laws by including names of unmarried couples, who cannot adopt together in Louisiana regardless of sexual orientation, according to a brief filed by Assistant Attorney General Kyle Duncan.

Adar and Smith adopted a boy, who was born in Shreveport in late 2005. They were then living in Connecticut, and went to Louisiana to meet the mother, who gave them legal custody soon after his birth. They adopted him in April 2006 in New York state.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP20ea7327612b425099eaf539796f6649.html

[JoeProBono]

" Mickey Ray Smith sounds like a serial killer’s name!"

Billy Ray Cyrus Thinks Miley's Lap Dance Was "Just Fun"!

[NonValueAdded]

If it an accurate birth certificate they are after, what do either of those two have to do with the birth? And what is with them flitting all over the country? venue shopping?

[kingu]

This is from the vanity amended birth certificates that many states (HAWAII) issue. They chose to issue these for adoptive parents, and put both the adoptive parent's names on it.

Louisiana should have simply said: We're not a party to this adoption, the boy's birth certificate is issued and not amended beyond the noting of his birth. Instead, they stupidly came up with this idea that they could put ONE of the names of the adoptive shacking up homosexuals on it.

This violates so many Louisiana policies as to be insane. Louisiana does not permit single parents or unmarried parents to adopt children. The denial for an amended certificate should have been made out of hand. There's no issue of recognizing the New York adoption - if they moved to Louisiana, both would have parental rights based upon the full faith and credit clause, but the whole issue over the amended certificate shouldn't have even started. ‘No, you can't have one.’

Since they issued one, and one adoptive parent is on the record, then they have pretty much sunk their own boat in this case.

[NonValueAdded]

I wonder if Louisiana considered challenging the adoption as legal in the first place. From the article it sounded like the Connecticut residents adopted a Louisiana baby in New York. How did NY even have jurisdiction to approve the adoption, hetero or homo notwithstanding? This sounds like a perversion of justice, done more to challenge the laws than in the best interests of the child. Moot the whole shebang.