Eminent Domain

The busy Supreme Court refused to stop a lesbian from seeking parental rights to a child that she helped raised in the case Carvin v Britain. The Washington state court said that she could proceed with her attempt to gain legally recognized ties to the child. The AP describes the background as follows...

Carvin and Britain had lived together for five years before they decided to become parents. Britain was artificially inseminated and gave birth in 1995 to the daughter, known as L.B. in court papers. The girl called Carvin "Mama" and Britain "Mommy."

The couple broke up in 2001 and the following year, when the girl was 7, Carvin was barred from seeing the girl. After Carvin went to court, Britain married the sperm donor.

I'm not surprised that the Court did not want to get involved in this case. Family law in general is just a huge mess. Add the gay rights issue into the picture and this case gets even messier. I agree that these issues are better resolved at the state level. The Court was right to punt on this one. Let Washington state deal with it.