Gay-Adoption Ban In Florida to Stand
W Post ^ | January 11, 2005 | Charles Lane
 

The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it would not hear a challenge to Florida's unique-in-the-nation ban on adoptions by gays, sidestepping a case that could have thrust the court into a bitter culture war.

Without comment or published dissent, the court declined a petition from four gay foster parents and their foster children, who argued that the Florida law, adopted in 1977, violates constitutional rights the Supreme Court recognized when it struck down Texas's ban on same-sex sodomy in the 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas.

The court's action leaves in place a 2 to 1 ruling last year by the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which upheld the Florida law as a rational expression of the state legislature's view that households headed by married heterosexuals are best for children.

Like the court's recent refusal to hear a challenge to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's ruling allowing same-sex marriage in that state, yesterday's decision is not a ruling on the merits of the issue and sets no precedent. But it may signal the court's reluctance to move into a politically charged area at a time when its future membership is uncertain because of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's bout with cancer -- and when the country is fresh from a bruising presidential election marked by a voter backlash against the prospect of more Massachusetts-style court rulings on same-sex marriage.
 

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