This was a fabulous win for Pro-Family forces...
Posted on 01/10/2005 4:47:20 PM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 -- The Supreme Court declined today to hear a challenge to Florida's ban on adoption by gay people, the only such state law in the country.
The justices refused without comment to consider an appeal by four Florida men who had argued that the 1977 law violated their rights to equal protection under the United States Constitution, and that it was irrational because it automatically excluded potential adoptive parents for abandoned children.
The case, Lofton v. Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, 04-478, had been closely watched as a possible test case. But with the Supreme Court's refusal to consider it, the final word is that of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta.
A three-judge panel of the circuit ruled last January that the Florida Legislature had the right to enact the law. The full circuit voted, 6 to 6, not to review the panel's conclusion, leaving the plaintiffs with only a possible appeal to the Supreme Court, a hope that was dashed today.
The panel's opinion was written by Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., who noted that under Florida law adoption is not a right but a privilege.
"Because of the primacy of the welfare of the child, the state can make classifications for adoption purposes that would be constitutionally suspect in many other areas," Judge Birch wrote. People who hope to adopt, he said, "are electing to open their homes and their private lives to close scrutiny by the state."
The opinion did not condemn gay lifestyles. Referring to the plaintiff Steven Lofton, a pediatric nurse who has raised from infancy three foster children infected with the virus that causes AIDS, it noted that "by all accounts, Lofton's efforts in caring for these children have been exemplary."
Other plaintiffs in the case have also raised foster children. But foster care is meant to be temporary and cannot be seen as an automatic prelude to adoption, the ruling stated.
Child-welfare groups advocates had urged the Supreme Court to take the case. So had the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
In his January 2004 ruling, Judge Birch said the state's primary concern is not those prospective parents who would like to adopt but, rather, the children who are destined for adoption.
"Openly homosexual households represent a very recent phenomenon, and sufficient time has not yet passed to permit any scientific study of how children raised in those households fare as adults," he wrote.
"Given this state of affairs, it is not irrational for the Florida Legislature to credit one side of the debate over the other. Nor is it irrational for the Legislature to proceed with deliberate caution before placing adoptive children in an alternative, but unproven, family structure that has not yet been conclusively demonstrated to be equivalent to the marital family structure that has established a proven track record spanning centuries."
And should the State of Florida wish to reconsider its policy, "the Legislature is the proper forum for this debate," not the courts, Judge Birch wrote.
This is not a win for that side. This lets the Florida ban on adoption by gay couples stand.
It's a loss for the gay lobby.
Nonsense. It was discussed and the Supremes are letting the resulting ruling from the appellate court stand.
"...they have better things to do with their time."
This is referring to the Supreme Court not hearing the case. After reading the brief snips of the opinions, I think the decision is sound. The court is right that the State of Florida has the right to proceed with caution at this point. The court intimates that the law may not always be that way but at this point in time, with unproven effects of a gay household on children, the state has the ability to proceed with caution and (at least for the time being), avoid placing children into that environment. It makes sense.
For the record, sodomy is also practiced by heterosexuals as well. Its just not their mainstay. And yes, there are heterosexual sodomites out there in the heartland producing children. They just aren't talking about it with you.
"What amendment is the right to adopt under again?"
That's the key issue here. Bravo. Gays do not have the RIGHT to adopt. The state of Florida has decided not to grant them that PRIVILEGE:
"A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste. See Synonyms at right.
Such an advantage, immunity, or right held as a prerogative of status or rank, and exercised to the exclusion or detriment of others..."
"by not hearing they agreed that no homo should be able to adopt"
Not exactly true. By not hearing the case, they agreed that there is no right to adopt only a privilege and that the state of Florida along with other states has the ability to set the criteria for granting such a privilege in much the same way it sets the standard for state licensing to practice law or medicine or to teach children.
The most important part, for you judicial activist hawks, is that the 11th said it is not for the courts to overrule the legsilature on this case.
(btw if you see a footnote in the opinion, one of the judges on this case was from the 9th circus sitting at the 11th circuit by special appointment.)
I'm no judicial activist hawk. My post says just the opposite.
should have phrased it better, sorry.
I have much respect for the judges on the 11th. They are actually decent fellows. They also have members who did not come up from DOJ bureacracies. This is important in dealing with the law as it applies to reality.
I think this opinion also leads the way for other courts to escape the homo-marriage debate. There is a lesbian couple who is again attacking this homo-adoption statute from the tack of homosexual marrige. The argument is that because FL does not allow homosexual marriage it is unfair to the child because the lesbian's recreational sex partner can't adopt the child as part of marriage. It is a convoluted theory but the courts are now forced to re-re-re-relisten to the same stuff. I believe these cases have just reached the point of forum shopping. It is long overdue that some lawyers star loosing their licenses over that type of forum shopping.
It should also be noted by all that states that allow homosexuals to adopt a child do NOT all allow a recreational sex partner to adopt the child. FL is NOT in the minority in this regard.
Good.
You really think all homosexuals pray on children?
Would it be fair to say all adulters are also sexual deviants?
Do they molest their kids and other kids as well?
Some homosexuals honestly believe they were born gay.. because they believe they are born that way doesn't automatically make them child molesters.
It's one thing for us as Christians to preach the bible and to help these sinners from doing something that is such an afront to God. It's another to give hateful retoric that simply isn't true.
I would suggest that we take what Jesus taught.
Of you that that haven't sin may cast the first stone.
You should understand that we are not meant to condemn any child of God.
actually the APA's own numbers (75%+ I believe if not higher) show most all homosexuals had their first homosexual contact UNDER the age of 18 at the initiation of an adult homosexual.
Sexual fetishes are conditioned for any number of reasons. Being "born" that way is a political creation not a scientific creation within the last 50 years.
And I agree with you... and I would believe that statistic.. although some homosexuals think they are born gay.
I didn't mean to imply I agreed with said homosexuals.
Just the oppositite.
I just don't like condemnation. It's ridculous and it's not what the bible teaches.
The fact is that we are all sinners.. and it is our job as Christians do make sure that we turn away as much as possible from sin.. and that does mean preaching what the bible says.
However the bible says less not judge unless thee be judge.
And nobody said that better than Jesus himself.
thanks for the info
all
just heard courthouse buzz today. Seems there are other southern states considering enacting prohibitions against homosexuals adopting children now that florida's ban has been upheld.
now the Florida Law must be duplicated in other states.
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