Activist Miami Judge Defies Court Precedent and Rules Against Homosexual Adoption Ban

Liberty Counsel

Press Release, November 25, 2008

www.LC.org

Miami, FL – Today, an activist Miami State Court Judge ruled that a 1977 Florida law that bans homosexual adoption is unconstitutional. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman claims that the law violates equal protection rights for homosexuals and that there is no valid reason to consider sexual orientation when approving adoption. The state has already filed an appeal. Liberty Counsel successfully defended the same law at the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which upheld the law banning homosexual adoption against a constitutional challenge.

The law has also been ruled to be constitutional by state courts of appeal. Although the decisions by the appeals courts are binding on the circuit judge, Judge Lederman lawlessly disregarded these legal precedents.

Earlier this month voters in Arkansas passed a law which bans unmarried heterosexuals and homosexuals from adopting children. In September, the Kentucky Court of Appeals strongly rebuked an activist lower family court for permitting a lesbian woman to illegally “adopt” her female companion’s child, in clear violation of both Kentucky law and the Kentucky Constitution. The higher court reaffirmed that in Kentucky, stepparent adoptions are only legal when the stepparent is married to a biological parent and that same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Most states ban homosexual adoption through legislation, regulation, or court precedent. These states ban adoption by homosexuals because the best interest of children is served by placing them in homes with a mom and a dad or where there is a likelihood of a mom and a dad. A homosexual home automatically excludes one gender, either the mom or the dad. Only a handful of states actually permit homosexual adoption.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “In the short term, this ruling by an activist judge is a tempest in a teapot. In the long-term it will be overturned on appeal. The law that bans homosexual adoption prefers that children be placed in a household with a mom and a dad. Homosexual adoption would permanently preclude a child from having the opportunity from having a mom and a dad. Moms and dads do matter to the well-being of children.”