New York Family Law Blog

Arkansas once had a state law that disallowed unmarried, cohabitating couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents – until the Arkansas Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in a unanimous decision, Manhattan Family Lawyers report. They assert, with a circuit judge’s ruling, that the law unconstitutionally burdens fundamental privacy rights.
“This band wouldn’t even allow a relative – gay or straight – to foster or adopt a child with whom they had a close relationship, so long as that relative was unmarried and living with a partner,” an ACLU representative said. “The court clearly saw that this ban violated the constitutional rights of our clients and thousands of other Arkansans.”
A Christian conservative group had another opinion, stating the decision “is the worst ever handed down by the Arkansas Supreme Court.”
“This is a classic example of judicial tyranny,” a representative of the Christian group told Manhattan Family Lawyers. “Unfortunately (the) ruling puts the rights of adults ahead of the rights of children and their welfare.” He and his group are considering making a move to have voters add the measure to the constitution as a constitutional amendment.
This Christian organization proposed the original law in November 2008 and it was passed with 57 percent of the vote. The law was proposed after the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled disallowing same-sex partners to adopt or foster children was unconstitutional.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit to challenge the law, in behalf of unmarried adults who wanted to adopt or foster children, parents who wanted to be able to choose who would adopt their children in case they were no longer able to do so, and the children of such parents.
A circuit judge declared the law cast “an unreasonably broad net”. The state and the Christian group countered that adopting or fostering children is a privilege which is allowed by state law – not a fundamental right.
The Supreme Court of Arkansas believes that the right to engage in private, consensual sexual activity without interference from the state is infringed upon by the law, Manhattan Family Lawyers have learned. Cohabitating sexual partners “must choose either to lead a life of private, sexual intimacy with a partner without the opportunity to adopt or foster children, or forego sexual cohabitation and, thereby, attain eligibility to adopt or foster,” wrote one of the justices.
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Families who are looking to adopt a child from Nepal, or who are in the process of doing so, have been put on hold as adoption proceedings have been made more difficult in recent months because of fears of child trafficking, said a New York Family Lawyer. 

Dozens of families that have spent thousands of dollars in adoption fees and overseas travel in attempt to open their homes to abandoned children have been stopped short of finalizing the proceedings because officials in Nepal are concerned that some of the children being adopted out were not really abandoned, but stolen, which has devastated those who are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new son or daughter. 

The New York Family Lawyer cited cases where adoptive families were given a choice by Nepalese officials to either stay in India until investigations into the birth parents of the child had been resolved, which happens very slowly, or to go back to the US and wait until such proof has been established. In a country where poverty and disease is rampant and children are left to die because no one can care for them, it seems as if adoption by a US family would be in the best interest of the child. 

Even so, describes the New York City Family Lawyer, Americans cannot typically afford to suspend their livelihoods and put everything on hold to remain in Nepal for an undetermined amount of time. Leaving the children that they crossed the globe to rescue and to love proves to be one of the most difficult things an adoptive parent can do, but often there is no choice since things move so slowly. 



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