Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer

Oklahoma Adoption Law Held Unconsitutional

The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld a district court judgment that a state law barring recognition of adoptions by same-sex couples already finalized in another state is unconstitutional. The case involved three same-sex couples who had adopted children in other states.' These three families brought suit against the state of Oklahoma seeking to enjoin enforcement of the adoption amendment, naming the governor, attorney general and commissioner of health in their official capacities.' The court held that 'final adoption orders by a state court of competent jurisdiction are judgments that must be given full faith and credit under the Constitution by every other state in the nation. Because the Oklahoma statute at issue categorically rejects a class of out-of-state adoption decrees, it violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

Finstuen v. Crutcher (US App 10th Cir. August 3, 2007)
Opinion online' (last visited August 10, 2007 bgf)

Source for Post: Oklahoma Family Law Blog.

Independent Adoptions

The advantages and disadvantages of skipping the agency when you adopt a child.

Independent adoptions are attractive to birth parents and prospective adoptive parents because they allow the people involved to keep control over the adoption process. However, there are risks and costs involved in independent adoptions that don't come with agency adoptions, as well as more work for the adoptive parents.

Adoption Basics

Types of Adoption

There are quite a few different ways to bring a child into your life, or confirm your legal relationship with one, through adoption. Here’s the lowdown on the different ways that adoption can work.

Agency Adoptions

Agency adoptions involve the placement of a child with adoptive parents by a public agency, or by a private agency licensed or regulated by the state.

Public agencies generally place children who have become wards of the state for reasons such as orphanage, abandonment, or abuse. Private agencies are sometimes run by charities or social service organizations. Children placed through private agencies are usually brought to the agency by a parent or parents who have or are expecting a child they want to give up for adoption. For more on adoption agencies, see Agency Adoptions.

Independent Adoptions

In a private, or independent, adoption, no agency is involved in the adoption. Some independent adoptions involve a direct arrangement between the birth parents and the adoptive parents, while others use an intermediary such as an attorney, doctor, or clergyperson. But for most independent adoptions, whether or not an intermediary is used, an attorney will be needed to take care of the court paperwork.

Most states allow independent adoptions, though many regulate them quite carefully. Independent adoptions are not allowed in Connecticut, Delaware, or Massachusetts. For more information, see Independent Adoptions.

An "open adoption" is an independent adoption in which the adoptive parents and birth parents have contact during the gestation period and the new parents agree to maintain some contact with the birth parents after the adoption, through letters, photos, or in-person visits.

Gay Adoption not top priority

Topeka - The chairwoman of a committee charged by legislative leaders to review gay adoption said she was in no hurry to do so.

READ MORE --->

Debate Over Gay Couple Adoption (Continued)

Wichita
Jennifer Bocchieri www.kake.com
Thursday, July 14, 2005

SRS is in charge of adoptions in the state. At any time, more than 4,000 children are in need of a home. This year only 600 of them will be adopted and now there could be changes in who can adopt these children.

This year, a ban on gay marriage began the legislative session. Next year, the hot topic could be a gay adoption ban.

“I personally believe it’s not in the best interest of children not to be placed into an adoption with homosexual individuals or a couple,” says Republican State Representative Steve Huebert, of Valley Center. He’s leading the charge. He began looking into the issue after a constituent expressed concern.

Kansas Republican Wants Gay Adoptions Review

(Topeka, Kansas) A conservative legislator wants to review policies allowing gays and lesbians to adopt children in foster care, an issue gay rights advocates feared eventually would arise after voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Rep. Steve Huebert (R-Valley Center) told the Lawrence Journal-World he is pursuing the issue on behalf of a constituent worried that her granddaughter might be adopted by a lesbian and raised by a lesbian couple.

State law is silent on whether gays and lesbians can adopt foster children, who generally are in state custody because of allegations of abuse or neglect.

"This is an issue that needs to be examined," Huebert said. "Things need to be spelled out better than they are."

Legislative leaders plan to meet Monday to decide what issues lawmakers will study this summer and fall before their session starts Jan. 9. Huebert wants a study of gay adoptions.

But some leaders are cool to the idea.

Banning Adoptions for Gays

As previously posted and reported in every news source across the state, Kansas voters approved a constitutional amendment banning marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples.  Now activists are fearing that our Kansas legislators will begin efforts to ban adoptions by gays and lesbians.  For the complete article on this story, go to this LINK.

K.S.A. 59-2113 sets out that any adult or husband and wife may adopt any minor child or even an adult.  If a couple is married, both must consent and join in the adoption petition.  While the statute speaks broadly of any adult or husband and wife, several other factors are relvant.  If a minor is being adopted, the chief consideration is the welfare of the child.   Recently there have been a number of cases in which a homosexual couple wanted to adopt a child.  In many instances, the adoption is a "coparent" adoption in that one of the parents is the biological or adoptive parent of the child.  The partner wants to have equal rights to custody if there is a split and wants to avoid a guardianship or adoption proceeding if the legal parent dies.  In researching for this post, I have discovered that at least two states have statutes prohibiting homosexuals from adopting, Flordia and New Hampshire.  Several other states have interpreted their statutes to not allow adoptions by a person of the same sex because of the general rule that an adoption terminates the rights of the biological parent.  Kansas has not had an appellate case on same sex adoptions. 

However, I would imagine we will see cases on this as well as court cases on our recent constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages and civil unions. 

Adoption of Russia's Children

I came across this interesting ARTICLE concerning "foreigners" adopting children from Russia.  The article mentions that foreigners adopted 500 more children across Russia than residents did in 2003; in 2004, this magin camt to 1,500 in two federal district alone-the Central and the Siberian.  It would appear that "foreigners" want to adopt Russia's children more than those in Russia do.