A state official’s denial of an unmarried, same-sex couple’s request to have their names added to the birth certificate of their child, whom they lawfully adopted in another state, was not a violation of the Full Faith and Credit Clause actionable in federal court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held April 12 (Adar v. Smith).
Although Chief Judge Edith H. Jones said the notion that the Louisiana official’s failure to “recognize” the plaintiffs’ out-of-state adoption decree as a violation of their rights under the Full Faith and Credit Clause was “superficially appealing,” the approach ...