RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A Virginia appeals court sidestepped the issue of civil unions on Nov. 28 and ruled that Vermont courts have jurisdiction in a custody battle between two former lesbian partners.

The Court of Appeals of Virginia remanded the dispute between Janet Miller-Jenkins and Lisa Miller-Jenkins to a lower Virginia court and advised it to issue a new judgment recognizing Vermont’s authority.

“By so holding, we do not address whether Virginia law recognizes or endorses same-sex unions entered into in another state or jurisdiction,” the court wrote in its decision.

An attorney for Janet Miller-Jenkins called it a victory.

“Janet is absolutely thrilled,” said Joseph Price, an attorney who represented Janet Miller-Jenkins. “This is exactly what we have been arguing since January of 2005 – that the Virginia trial court had no business under either Virginia or federal law interfering with the decision of the Vermont family court.”

Lisa Miller-Jenkins will continue to pursue the case, said Erik Stanley, an attorney with the Liberty Counsel.

“We intend to pursue all of our options to continue to push this case forward, whether that includes a full rehearing at the Court of Appeals or asking the Virginia Supreme Court to hear it,” Stanley said. “I think eventually the U.S. Supreme Court is going to have to resolve these issues.”

In 2000, Vermont became the first state in the nation to recognize same-sex couples’ relationships, enacting a civil union law that mimics marriage. Virginia does not have a similar statute, and voters in November approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The two women were Virginia residents in 2000 when they traveled to Vermont to join in a civil union. Lisa Miller-Jenkins conceived a child through artificial insemination in 2001 while the couple was together and a child, Isabella, was born the following April. They eventually moved full-time to Vermont in August 2002.

In the fall of 2003, the women separated and Lisa Miller-Jenkins moved back to Virginia. She filed for a dissolution of their civil union, which is akin to a divorce, and sought custody of Isabella, now 4.

In June 2004, a Vermont family court granted Janet Miller-Jenkins visitation rights; that October, a Frederick County, Va., court issued a contradicting decision.

In August, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that Vermont courts had exclusive jurisdiction in the custody battle. Virginia Appeals Judge Jere Willis Jr. agreed.

“This case does not place before us the question whether Virginia recognizes the civil union entered into by the parties in Vermont. The only question before us is whether … Virginia can deny full faith and credit to the orders of the Vermont court.

“It cannot.”

The opinion is carefully worded to support custody rights, not the rights of same-sex couples per se, explained Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.

“The decision is very narrow; basically the court is just saying that this is a custody dispute,” said Tobias, adding future cases involving same-sex custody rights would likely have to involve the exact same circumstances – one parent hopscotching from state to state seeking a favorable court ruling – to incur a similar judgment.

The Vermont court wrote that the dispute revolved around a federal law and a uniform state law that’s on the books in some form in every state. The federal law is the Parental Kidnapping Protection Act and the state statute is the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act.

The Court of Appeals of Virginia agreed.

The laws gave Vermont jurisdiction because state courts had determined that the women’s relationship was legally valid and they were both legally the parents of the child.

Legal experts have said the differing interpretations by the two states’ courts could place the question of civil unions and same-sex marriages before the U.S. Supreme Court, even if the justices want it dealt with at the state level.