U.S. Supreme Court Archives

Supreme Court will focus on marriage equality in late March

January 7, 2013 By Editorial Staff

On March 26, the Supreme Court court will review the California ban on gay marriage. The court will accept or reject a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, or issue a narrower ruling affecting only California.

The next day the court will review a New York ruling striking down a centerpiece of the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that denies married same-sex couples a variety of federal benefits that heterosexual couples receive.

Decisions in these cases are expected by the end of June.

[via Reuters]

Sperm donor wants to be a father. Legal case will help determine the future of donor rights

July 10, 2008 By Editorial Staff

Daryl Hendrix donated his sperm to Samantha Harrington, who conceived twins. Now Hendrix believes he has a constitutional right to parent the children.

Mr. Hendrix initially petitioned the Shawnee County District Court in Kansas with hope of winning parental rights. Ms. Harrington countered by filing a paternity action. Hendrix testified that he and Harrington had an oral agreement to co-parent their children together. Both of those cases were dismissed by a district court judge, prompting Hendrix to appeal the decision in the Kansas Supreme Court. The Kansas Supreme Court decided, 4-2, that a sperm donor must have a written agreement with the mother in order to exercise any parental rights.

On Monday, March 17, 2008, attorneys for Hendrix appealed to the United States Supreme Court, asking for the ruling of the Kansas Supreme Court to be overturned. This appeal will be a landmark case and determine the future of reproductive technology, alternative child conception, and donor rights.

In a similar case in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the verbal agreement between the sperm donor and the mother was “valid on its face” and that ‘Biological parents cannot waive the interests of a child – a third party – who has an independent “right” to support from each one of them.’ The Court ordered the sperm donor to pay over $1500 a month in child support, even though he was not named as the father on the birth certificate of the children. A British Court had a similar finding in the case of a man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple.

Article adapted by ProudParenting.com from original press release
Source: U.S. Newswire

Times Are Changing

June 22, 2007 By Community Editor

Is homosexuality still viewed as a sin? A recent Gallup Poll found Americans nearly evenly split between those who saw homosexual relations as “morally acceptable” (47 percent) and those who saw them as “morally wrong” (49 percent).

According to polls, our community is gaining friends.

Vermont upholds rights of non-biological mother

June 19, 2007 By Community Editor

It’s a tale of two women who lived together as a couple for several years in Virginia before traveling to Vermont in 2000 to enter into a civil union. Their daughter was born in Virginia in 2002, after one woman was impregnated with sperm from an anonymous donor. The donor sperm was chosen by the woman’s partner.

When the baby was 4 months old, the women moved to Vermont, where they lived for about a year before separating. The biological mom and daughter moved back to Virginia, and the bio-mom had refused to let her ex-partner to see their daughter.

The civil union was dissolved and a Vermont judge decided to support parental role of both moms. And he might revisit his custody decision if the bio-mom interfered in the relationship between her ex-partner and her daughter.

A lawyer for one mother said the most significant fact about the judge’s order was how ordinary it was.

He said, ”These cases should be decided not with a gay exception, but with an eye toward what is in the best interests of the child.”

NY Times subscribers can read it’s coverage of the story.

Photo: WashingtonPost.com