JACKSON, Miss., April 1 (UPI) — Mississippi must end its ban on adoptions by same-sex married couples, a federal judge ruled.
The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel P. Jordan III explicitly statesthe state law against the adoptions, the last of its kind in the United States, violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The case, Campaign for Southern Equality v. Mississippi Department of Human services et al., was brought on behalf of four married couples challenging a 2000 law reading, in its entirety, “Adoption by couples of the same gender is prohibited.” The married couples include two intending to adopt and two more with one child each.
In his ruling, Jordan cited Justice Anthony Kennedy‘s opinion in the landmark 2015 U.S. Supreme Court same-sex marriage case, Obergefell v. Hodges.
“Were the court to stay its hand to allow slower, case-by-case determination of the required availability of specific public benefits to same-sex couples, it still would deny gays and lesbians many rights and responsibilities intertwined with marriage.”
Jordan also noted that in Obergefell v. Hodges, while not specifying adoption as a right of same-sex married couples, “the court extended its holding to marriage related benefits — which includes the right to adopt.”
While there remain no more statutory bans on same-sex adoptions, some states have “religious freedom laws,” which critics slam for being used to discriminate against the LGBTQ communities. There also remain laws banning transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender with which they identify.
It has not been determined if Mississippi intends to appeal Jordan’s ruling.
