Attorney: Same-Sex Couples' Adoption Case Invites Judicial Activism
by Rusty Pugh
November 15, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Christian lawyer who feels it is just common sense to prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children is defending against a challenge to an Oklahoma law dealing with that very issue.An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund has filed a motion to intervene in federal court on behalf of an Oklahoma lawmaker and a pro-family group. ADF's clients in this case are seeking to defend an Oklahoma law that does not allow same-sex couples to adopt.
Three same-sex couples have filed suit contesting the state law. However, ADF-member Brent Olsson of the Oklahoma City law firm Huckaby, Fleming, Greenwood and Olsson, believes the State has the best interests of the children in mind. "I think the bulk of sociological science will indicate that children are best raised where you have a father figure and a mother figure," he says, "and that is the common sense of Oklahoma's approach."
But according to the pro-family lawyer, the three same-sex couples claim the state law limiting adoptions to heterosexuals should be declared unconstitutional. He says these plaintiffs are arguing that the State should consider same-sex couples qualified to adopt children in Oklahoma if those couples have a legal domestic partnership arrangement from another state.
Olsson considers this argument a "call for judicial activism," which he feels must be stopped. He says the plaintiffs in this case "want a judge to come in and essentially use the U.S. Constitution and invalidate the common sense resolve of the Oklahoma people and Western civilization."
The ADF attorney says the motion to intervene states that, if the plaintiffs succeed in their suit, the outcome will have the effect of legally undermining the institution of marriage, just as the would-be interveners believe it would also adversely affect child welfare. "Our clients' chief concern," the lawyer asserts, "is the children of the state of Oklahoma and what has long been proven to be the best environment for their upbringing."
President George W. Bush has said he favors allowing the states to work out their own versions of so-called domestic partnerships. However, Olsson feels arguments like the one being used by the plaintiffs in the Oklahoma case have the potential to undermine other states' marriage laws.
