Federal Appeals Court: Louisiana Must Recognize Out of State Gay Adoption

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Gideon Alper – GayCouplesLawBlog.com –

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that Louisiana has to recognize the New York same-sex adoption of a Louisiana child even though Louisiana does not itself grant same-sex adoptions.

Last October I talked about Adar v. Smith, the Fifth Circuit case where a couple that went to New York to legally adopt a baby born in Louisiana couldn’t get an updated birth certificate from Louisiana. Back then, Louisiana said it didn’t have to recognize adoptions from other states that it wouldn’t perform itself.

The Court today said otherwise.

Why is This Case Important?

Because it’s about how the full faith and credit clause applies to gay rights. The full faith and credit clause is the part of the U.S. Constitution that makes one state recognize the judgments of another state.

Sound familiar? You often hear about how states that don’t allow gay marriage should have to recognize gay marriages from states that do. Instead, states without gay marriage give a similar argument to the one Louisiana gave in Adar v. Smith–that they shouldn’t have to recognize marriages that they themselves would not allow.

What Did the Court Say?

Here’s why the Fifth Circuit said the full faith and credit clause makes Louisiana recognize the New York same sex adoption:

•First, it recognized that the Supreme Court has said that there are no “public policy exceptions” to the clause.

•Second, it disagreed with Louisiana’s argument that adoption decrees are more like a statute than a judgment. Louisiana said that because the New York adoption decree represents New York public policy created by New York statutes, recognizing the adoption would be replacing Louisiana’s policy with New York’s.

•Instead, the court said that the birth certificate is required because it recognizes what New York has already done (the recognition required by the clause). It does not have to reflect would Louisiana would do on its own.
So what does this mean for gay marriage?

Not much. While the court says that domestic-law judgments must be given full faith and credit by other states, a marriage is not a judgment. Further, what gay marriage faces that gay adoption doesn’t face is DOMA, a federal allow that says specifically that states don’t have to recognize gay marriages from other states. Unless DOMA is repealed or is ruled to be unconstitutional, marriages from gay marriage states probably won’t get recognized elsewhere.

Be sure to read the press release from Lambda Legal, which represented the two men.