SCOTUS Declines Gay Adoption Appeal

Today the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that adoptive gay parents may not both be listed an a child's amended birth certificate.

The justices rejected the California couple's appeal Tuesday without comment. The couple claims that Louisiana, where the child was born, has an unconstitutional policy against adoption by unmarried partners. The state used that policy to justify naming only one of them on an amended birth certificate. The men, Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, argue gay couples have a due process right to be listed on such certificates as joint custodial parents. A federal appeals court ruled against the couple earlier this year. Some civil rights groups had urged a high court review, saying the case would have broader implications in the current legal fight in state and federal courts over same-sex marriage and whether states -- and Washington, D.C. -- must honor legal rights that gays and lesbians enjoy in other states.

Today's inaction may not bode well for future rulings about the portability of gay unions.