Nebraska’s Supreme Court ruled on March 26 that a lesbian couple has the right to adopt a child, overturning a lower-court ruling that relied in part on the definition of the word “wife” that a judge pulled from a legal dictionary.

The two women, identified in court papers as Kelly and Maria, are legally married. They applied to adopt the 3-year-old girl, Yasmin, they have raised since birth. In the application, both use the word “wife” to refer to themselves. Dixon County Judge Douglas Luebe denied their petition, asserting that both women could not be wives because a legal dictionary he consulted defined “wife” as “a woman who has a lawful living husband,” reported the Lincoln Journal Star.

The Nebraska Supreme Court failed to find Luebe’s reasoning to be persuasive. Justice William B. Cassel wrote that while state law requires that both spouses agree to an adoption, they are not required to be of the opposite sex.

“A wife is commonly understood to be ‘[a] married woman,” observed the court. “Based on the understanding of that word in current usage, Kelly is a ‘person having a … wife.’ So, too, is Maria.” (In re adoption of Yasmin S.)

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


Join the Fight and Donate Today