Same-Sex Couple In Custody Battle
Associated Press
Saturday, August 5, 2006
MONTPELIER, Vt., Aug. 4 -- The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that Vermont courts, and not those in Virginia, have exclusive jurisdiction over a case involving two women battling for custody of a child they had while they were in a lesbian relationship.
The unanimous ruling conflicts with a series of decisions in Virginia, where courts ruled the state's laws against same-sex marriage controlled the case.
Justice John Dooley wrote that Vermont's civil union laws govern the women's 2003 separation and subsequent child-custody disagreement because they were legally joined in a civil union there in 2000.
"This is a straightforward interstate jurisdictional dispute over custody, and the governing law fully supports the Vermont court's decision to exercise jurisdiction and refuse to follow the conflicting Virginia visitation order," Dooley wrote.
In 2000, Vermont became the first state in the nation to recognize same-sex couples' relationships, enacting a civil union law. Connecticut is the only other state with such a law, and other states' recognition of such relationships has been a matter of litigation. Massachusetts is the only state that permits same-sex marriage.
Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins were Virginia residents in 2000 when they traveled to Vermont to join in a civil union. In April 2002, Lisa Miller-Jenkins gave birth to a daughter, conceived through artificial insemination, and the family moved to Vermont full time that August.
About a year later, Lisa Miller-Jenkins returned to Winchester, Va., with their daughter, Isabella, and denied Janet Miller-Jenkins's demands for visitation rights. The women were granted a dissolution of their civil union, and Lisa Miller-Jenkins filed for full custody.
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