LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas judge has overturned the state’s voter-approved law prohibiting adoptions by unmarried couples, a decision critics say will harm children in the foster care and adoption systems who need a stable home with a mother and father.
The April 16 ruling by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Christopher C. Piazza strikes down the Arkansas Adoption and Foster Care Act, which passed 57 percent to 43 percent in 2008 and which prohibited cohabitating couples — heterosexual or homosexual — from adopting. Piazza said the law violates the Arkansas constitution’s guaranteed right to privacy and forces couples “to choose between becoming a parent and having any meaningful type of intimate relationship outside of marriage.” The law, Piazza said, targets a “politically unpopular group.”
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of several homosexual couples. Utah is the only other state with a similar law.
Although the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee — which sponsored the ballot initiative — said it will appeal, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has not given a definitive answer.
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