Reuters reports on the United States Supreme Court’s denial of cert today in Oren Adar v. Darlene Smith, No. 11-46:
In a case closely watched by gay rights advocates, the high court rejected without comment an appeal by Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, who sued to be listed as parents on a Louisiana birth certificate of the infant they adopted.
The justices let stand a ruling by a U.S. appeals court that a Louisiana registrar’s decision not to list both men does not violate the child’s right to equal protection under the law and does not deny legal recognition of the New York adoption.
In Louisiana, adopted children can get new birth certificates with their new parents’ names on them. In the state, only married couples may adopt a child.
Because the gay couple was not married, the registrar refused to list both names on the birth certificate but offered to put one name on because Louisiana also allows a single-parent adoption.
The full story is here.
Amici in the case included UC Irvine Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (amicus brief here) and the Support Center for Child Advocates and multiple other child advocacy groups (amicus brief here).
-Bridget Crawford
image source: birth-certificates.org, here
