VA Supreme Court Hears Child Custody Case

April 17, 2008

By Frank Green
Times-Dispatch

The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments this morning in a long-running custody battle over a 6-year-old girl and two women who entered into a civil union in Vermont but then later broke up.

Lisa Miller-Jenkins returned to Virginia with her daughter, Isabella, who was conceived via artificial insemination.

A Vermont court granted a dissolution of the union giving Lisa primary custody and her former partner, Janet Miller-Jenkins visitation. Lisa, however, went to court in Frederick County, Va. and won an order stating that she was the sole parent and that Janet had no custody or visitation rights.

However, in 2006, the Virginia Court of Appeals reversed the Frederick County ruling, holding that federal law requires each state to respect the child custody and visitation rulings of another state so that chaos will not erupt when a parent unhappy with a result runs to another state for a different ruling.

Following yesterday's arguments, Lisa and her advocates said the issue was one in which the child's future hangs in the balance in which one side wants her to become a political trophy of a homosexual agenda.

Lisa Miller-Jenkins said that Janet is not a parent … she is not a parent, plain and simple. The other side said the issue has nothing to do with homosexual civil unions — just the right of a parent to have court custody and visitation orders issued in one state to be respected in all states, including Virginia.

The justices are expected to rule by June.

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