Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boca Raton

Nearly a year ago, I posted about the Interstate Child Custody / Visitation Dispute by Lesbian “Second Mother”. Child custody rulings in both Vermont, where the homosexual couple and child had lived, and Virginia, where the birth mother moved the child after the civil union dissolved, were on appeal.

Now, the highest court in Vermont, the state in which a child custody case was first filed and a ruling first entered, has held that it has exclusive child custody jurisdiction of the child and that the Virginia courts proceeded in an improper exercise of jurisdiction.

This ruling seems perfectly sound under child custody jurisdiction statutes.

But the birth mother appears to be taking the position that the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which does not address jurisdiction at all, somehow deprives the Vermont courts of jurisdiction.

Now, interested parties are waiting to see whether Virginia yields jurisdiction or the jurisdictional dispute is referred to the US Supreme Court.

Read more in this Associated Press article: Court rules lesbian has joint custody of child and this WorldNetDaily article: Case challenging civil union laws likely headed to U.S. Supreme Court.