Co-Adoption Battle Rages in Michigan (barf alert!)

The Data Lounge ^ | 6/29/02 | The Data Lounge

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Co-Adoption Battle Rages in Michigan Thursday, 27 June 2002 DETROIT -- The ongoing legal drama over second-parent adoptions in Michigan took another unexpected turn on Monday when Washtenaw County Chief Judge Archie Brown refused to remove himself from hearing adoption petitions taken away from Circuit Judge Donald Shelton.

The Detroit Free Press reported on June 13 that the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sent Brown a letter asking him to rescind his order banning second-parent adoptions, most of which are granted to gay couples.

The ACLU questioned Brown's authority to issue his June 4 directive without an actual case before him. "The chief circuit court judge is an administrator, not a roaming appellate court, and cannot substitute his judgement for that of other judges in the circuit whenever he sees fit," the ACLU wrote.

In early June, Brown ordered the processing of all second-parent adoption petitions to cease immediately, including any that were pending. He later rescinded that order, but refused to return the cases he had commandeered back to Shelton

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACLU says that bias is motivating judge's action. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Shelton has been openly defiant of Brown's authority to issue broad edicts in interpreting the law and said he would not follow Brown's June 4 order to halt the adoptions.

The ACLU not only challenged Brown's authority to reassign the cases to himself, but charged that he could not decide the cases impartially. Brown denied any bias in the cases.

No action will be taken on the nine cases while the appeal is pending, said Kary Moss, ACLU executive director. In a statement released this week, Shelton questioned Brown's motives in having only the second parent adoption cases reassigned to himself.

"Never in the history of Michigan law has it been held or even suggested that an administratively appointed chief judge has the authority to reassign specific cases... just because he has an interpretation of the law that differs from that of the duly assigned judge," Shelton said in a statement.

Said Shelton, "Reassigning cases to influence the outcome would be a violation of fundamental due process."

-- Editor

[Notwithstanding]

Some judges are in the hip pocket of the ACLU and the SSAD (same sex attraction disorder) lobby (commonly referred to as the "gay" lobby) - just hoping to earn enough votes to sit on the Supreme Court of Michigan.