SCOTUS Denies Review of Florida's Homosexual Adoption Ban
by Allie Martin
January 11, 2005
(AgapePress) - The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider the constitutionality of Florida's law forbidding same-sex adoption. The court's refusal to review the case marks the end of a legal challenge seeking to have that law declared unconstitutional.
Mathew D. Staver is president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization which filed an amicus brief supporting the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling supporting Florida's law against homosexual adoption. The Liberty Counsel spokesman is calling the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the matter a major victory.
Mat Staver | |
The Eleventh Circuit held that Florida's legislature properly made a policy judgment that it is not in the interests of displaced children to be adopted by homosexuals, and the Supreme Court's decision not to review that ruling, in effect, affirms it. According to Staver, with this decision, the nation's highest court has come down on the side of traditional families.Liberty Counsel's president says he was apprehensive about what the high court justices might do. "I was concerned," he notes, "based upon the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, where it struck down a same-sex sodomy law, that the court might want to get involved in this particular case in Florida and overturn Florida's law banning homosexual adoption."
The good news, Staver points out, is that only four members of the Supreme Court are needed to take a case for review. "Apparently," he adds, "there's not even four justices who want to get involved in this adoption issue."
That is something of a relief to the attorney, who feels the court's decision will have nationwide ramifications, especially since other states will eventually have to tackle the issue of same-sex adoption. "I believe as a result of this case being allowed to stand and the law continuing to be in effect that children in Florida will be benefited," he says, "but not only that -- I think other states will follow Florida's lead to enact similar laws."
Staver contends that, under Florida law, adoption is a privilege rather than a right and not a private decision but a public act. He says the Florida legislature properly determined that homosexual adoption is not in the bests interests of children and had a "legitimate interest in encouraging a stable and nurturing environment for the education and socialization of its adopted children" by seeking to place them in homes that have both a mother and father.
The Eleventh Circuit relied on Liberty Counsel's amicus brief in upholding the Florida law. Staver says the Supreme Court's decision to deny review not only causes the lower court's ruling to remain in effect but also provides support for other states that have bans regarding adoption of children by homosexuals.
