Top court tosses gay adoption appeal
By CB Online Staff
Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal of its recent decision to deny a lesbian’s adoption request.
The woman’s partner gave birth to a girl, now 12, through in vitro fertilization. The plaintiff said that it is in the child’s best interest for the woman to adopt the girl as the second parent.
The high court voted 5-4 to uphold a law banning gay couples from adopting children. That decision was appealed.
It was the first time the court heard a case on same-sex adoptions.
The top court ruled Wednesday there is no standing for the appeal, dismissing it on the grounds that the petition was not filed within a 10-day deadline.
The administration of Gov. Alejandro García Padilla sought to join the case as a friend of the court, with Solicitor General Margarita Mercado Echevaray saying that the government’s policy had shifted in favor of same-sex adoptions.
The reconsideration was denied in another 5-4 decision.
Associate Justice Rafael Martínez Torres wrote that “the state may have changed its mind, but not the law. Instead of wasting ink and time trying to convince us that the Constitution says something it doesn’t say, it would be more prudent and fruitful for the new position of the state to be aimed at efforts to amend the law.”
Chief Justice Federico Hernández Denton recommended that the island’s top court postpone its ruling on the appeal until U.S. Supreme Court decisions came down in related cases.
Legislators in the U.S. territory and the García Padilla administration have moved on several proposals to extend more rights to gays and lesbians.
Still, the governor has maintained he doesn’t support same-sex marriages, which remain banned in Puerto Rico.
No comments:
Post a Comment