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Virginia’s top court rules in favor of Vermont woman in lesbian custody dispute
Lawyer hopes to use amendment banning same-sex marriage in new proceedings
Published Thursday, 12-Jun-2008 in issue 1068
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) – Virginia’s highest court ruled Friday that the state must enforce a Vermont court order awarding child-visitation rights to a mother’s former lesbian partner.
The Virginia Supreme Court rejected Lisa Miller’s claim that a lower court improperly ignored a Virginia law and a state constitutional amendment that prohibit same-sex unions and the recognition of such arrangements from other states.
The United States has a patchwork of laws on same-sex marriage. Only Massachusetts now has same-sex marriage, but California will later this month, and a handful of others allow domestic partnerships or civil unions, complicating matters when couples move into other states with different laws.
The ruling was a victory for Janet Jenkins, who has been fighting for visitation rights since the dissolution of the civil union she and Miller obtained in Vermont in 2000. In 2002, Miller gave birth to the daughter, Isabella, who now is at the center of a legal battle closely watched by national conservative and gay rights groups.
Miller renounced homosexuality and moved back to Virginia with the child after the couple split, and she has fought Jenkins’ visitation efforts. However, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal law aimed at preventing parents from crossing state lines to evade a custody ruling requires Virginia to enforce Vermont’s order.
“I’m relieved that this tug-of-war with my daughter is over,” Jenkins said in a statement released by the gay-rights group Lambda Legal. “This has been a very long four years. My daughter and I need some time to be together. She needs her other mom.”
Miller’s attorney, Mathew Staver, said his client “has not lost her courage or her resolve” and will pursue other legal options. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the law school at conservative Christian school Liberty University, said he hopes to raise the issue of Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions in a new proceeding.
Jenkins’ attorney, Joseph R. Price, said the decision “is fully consistent with Virginia, Vermont and federal law” on child custody and visitation matters.
The Virginia Court of Appeals twice ruled in favor of Jenkins. Miller’s attorneys missed a deadline for appealing the first ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court, so they filed a second appeal on different grounds. The appellate court ruled that the second case raised no new issues, and the Supreme Court agreed. In 2006, the Vermont Supreme Court also ruled in favor of Jenkins.
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