Ruling denying adoption by same-sex Nebraska couple reversed
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday reversed a ruling by a lower court judge who denied a same-sex couple’s petition to adopt a child, based not on state law but on the legal definition of “wife” that he pulled from a law dictionary.
The reversal came in the case of two married women who sought last year to adopt a 3-year-old child whom they had raised since her birth. Dixon County Judge Douglas Luebe denied the petition, saying he had no jurisdiction to grant the request to the women, who were listed in their petition as “wife and wife,” because a law dictionary defined “wife” as “‘a woman who has a lawful living husband.’”
The Nebraska high court rejected that reasoning, saying state adoption laws clearly allow a same-sex married couple to adopt, and that “any adult person or persons” can adopt a child. So set is the law that the Nebraska Attorney General declined to file a brief defending the judge’s ruling.
The judge’s reasoning was flawed, the high court said, because the plain language of the state law doesn’t preclude same-sex married couples from adopting.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/couples-nebraska-adoption-courts-567a4313899a003a33cd442b5f9800cc