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(Sharon S. v. Superior Court of the State of CA for the County of San Diego), Appellate Case No. D 037871, Court of Appeal of the State of California
Sharon S. requested that the Superior Court of San Diego dismiss her partner's (Annette F.) petition to adopt the child they were raising together - despite Sharon's prior consent to the adoption. The superior court denied the motion and Sharon appealed.
NCYL submitted amicus curiae briefs in the court of appeal and the Supreme Court arguing that this adoption petition, as all others, should be decided on the merits. As in other similar cases, NCYL argues that adoption statutes, policies, and case law must focus on the best interests of the child, and not arbitrarily or categorically exclude potential adoptive parents due to gender, marital status, or sexual orientation.
On October 25, 2001, the Court of Appeal concluded that the second-parent adoption procedure, by which Annette and many other same-sex partners have adopted the children of their partners, is not authorized by California law. Language in the Court's decision implied that the ruling applied retroactively, potentially invalidating thousands of second-parent adoptions. NCYL filed a petition for rehearing, requesting that the court either reverse it’s ruling, or modify its opinion to clarify that previously-finalized adoptions continued to be valid. The court denied rehearing. However, the court modified its opinion to acknowledge that the issue of the validity of other adoptions was not argued and that the court's ruling did not affect them. The California Supreme Court granted review and, on May 7, 2003, heard oral argument.
On August 4, 2003, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court, concluding that second parent adoptions are in fact valid under California law. After denying a petition for rehearing, the Court remanded the case for a determination of whether adoption is in the child’s best interest.
Counsel: Curtis L. Child, NCYL, Oakland, CA; Shannan Wilbur, Legal Services for Children, San Francisco, CA; Alice Bussiere, Youth Law Center; Norman Formanek and Julie Salamon for Child Advocacy Program, University of California at Berkeley, Child Advocacy Program, University of California, Berkeley; Donna Furth, Northern California Association of Counsel for Children, San Francisco, CA; Marvin Ventrell, National Association of Counsel for Children, Denver, CO
Updated Dec. 20, 2005
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