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V.L. v. E.L. | 136 S. Ct. 1017 (2016)

Before Obergefell versus Hodges enshrined their right to marriage, same-sex couples had to create their own legal arrangements for partnerships and parenting. These arrangements could be jeopardized if the couple split up, as the two women in V. L. versus E. L. discovered.

V. L. and E. L. formed a committed relationship in nineteen ninety-five. Using assisted reproduction, E. L. gave birth to three children. V. L. and E. L. raised them as joint parents.

To formalize V. L.’s parental relationship, the two women decided to have V. L. adopt the children. They rented a house in Georgia and filed a petition for adoption in Fulton County superior court. E. L. stated that she wasn’t relinquishing her own parental rights, and gave her express consent to V. L. adopting the children as a second parent. The Georgia court determined that the adoption was in compliance with state law, and issued a decree of adoption recognizing both E. L. and V. L. as legal parents.

In twenty eleven, E. L. and V. L. were living in Alabama with the children when they decided to end their relationship. V. L. moved out. E. L. wouldn’t let V. L. see the kids. V. L. petitioned Alabama county court to register the Georgia adoption and request custody or visitation. The court awarded her visitation.

E. L. appealed the visitation order. She argued that Alabama courts shouldn’t recognize the Georgia adoption judgment because the Georgia court had lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to enter it. The court of appeals found for V. L.

The Alabama Supreme Court reversed. Under its reading of the Georgia adoption statute, a child with a living parent could be adopted by a third party only if the parent surrendered all her rights to the child. It held that the Georgia court couldn’t let V. L. adopt the children while still recognizing E. L.’s rights, so the Alabama courts didn’t have to give full faith and credit to the Georgia adoption judgment.

The United States Supreme Court granted cert.

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