Here’s a quick roundup before everyone takes off for the holiday:
Politics and Law
- Nancy Polikoff offers her expert analysis of the decision this week in the Jenkins-Miller custody case I mentioned Saturday. Nancy has read through the ruling (she’s a lawyer, and has access to this sort of thing before us mere mortals), and notes that the court detailed every one of the many instances of Miller’s non-compliance with visitation orders. The judge found that “Ms. Miller’s non-compliance with court orders and willingness to provide false promises under oath, cast doubt upon her ability to provide proper guidance for IMJ.”Bottom line? If you’re a liar who flaunts the law, don’t expect a court to think you’ll be a good parent.And, in proof that these sorts of battles rock entire families, not just the parents and child, she notes:
The judge also found that Lisa interfered with visits by Janet’s parents, who live in Virginia, and that she asked them not to refer to themselves as “Mom-Mom” and “Pop-Pop” to Isabella. (Isabella’s middle name is Ruth, after Janet’s mother). In addition, Lisa changed Isabella’s name to eliminate “Jenkins” without any notice to Janet. . . .
- Two women are appealing to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico for the right to a second-parent adoption by the non-biological mother of the child they have raised since birth. The Columbia University Gender & Sexuality Law Blog notes that lower courts “have not inquired as to the best interests of the child in question. This is unfortunate both because this is standard for adoption decisions in Puerto Rico (and most jurisdictions).”
- The Gender & Sexuality Law Blog also brings us up to date on Debra H. v. Janice R., yet another case of a biological mother trying to keep her former partner from seeing the child they had both parented since her/his birth. The Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic filed an amicus brief with the New York Court of Appeals, which is hearing the case, on behalf of forty-five family law scholars from every law school in the state, asking the Court “to bring the State into line with the clear trend in family law by recognizing important functional parent-child relationships.”
In the Aftermath of Tragedy
- The mother of slain gay Puerto Rican teen Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, Miriam Mercado, made a heartbreaking and touching statement to the team organizing vigils in her son’s memory last weekend. Blabbeando has more on the tragedy.
- Several nurses at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida apologized in person to Janice Langbehn, who had been kept from her dying partner, Lisa Pond, by the hospital. The couple’s three children were kept from Pond as well. In September, a U.S. District Court rejected a lawsuit by Langbehn against the hospital. Langbehn accepted the nurses’ gesture, but said she still wants an apology from hospital management.