Alabama courts end legal limbo, begin approving same-sex couple adoptions

Source: AL.com, the Alabama Media Group

By Lee Roop | lroop@al.com
on July 17, 2015 at 6:30 AM, updated July 17, 2015 at 6:31 AM

After years of legal delay, Alabama courts this week began approving one of the legal rights most sought by same-sex couples in the state: the ability to adopt children.

A same-sex couple adoption was approved in Madison County, and Mobile couple Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand learned that a judge has set a July 24 hearing date in their landmark legal adoption battle. ... The Mobile judge is expected to approve Searcy's adoption of the son the couple has raised together since he was born nine years ago, Searcy said Thursday.

Searcy and McKeand, married in California in 2008, sued Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis in federal court in 2014 after he rejected their adoption application on the grounds their same-sex marriage was not legal in Alabama. Alabama limits adoption to single people and married couples.

Their lawsuit led to U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade's landmark January ruling that Alabama's ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. After a flurry of same-sex marriages across the state in February, Granade's ruling was put on hold until the Supreme Court finally gave marriage rights to all Americans in late June.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/07/alabama_courts_end_legal_limbo.html