Supreme Court to look at gay rights to adopt

Gay rights issues will be top of the agenda at the US Supreme Court justices' first private conference of the new year today (Friday). The Florida gay adoption case, Lofton v Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, is one of dozens of cases the court will discuss at its conference with an eye toward granting or denying review, reports the Legal Times. If the justices do grant review, the case will give the court its first chance to comment on the scope of its 2003 Lawrence v Texas ruling that announced due process and privacy rights for homosexuals. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals narrowly applied Lawrence and an earlier ruling – Romer v Evans – on January 28, 2004, when it upheld Florida's 1977 law excluding g ay people from eligibility as adoptive parents. Florida is the only state that explicitly bars homosexuals from adopting children.

 

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