Dear Adoption Maharishi: Do Adoption Laws Violate the 14th Amendment?
Dear Adoption Maharishi,
I am really bothered by the fact that adult adoptees are denied access to their original birth certificates in many states. I can think of no other group of people who are categorically denied access to their own records without having any say. How can this practice comply with the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment?
~ Frustrated
Dear Frustrated,
This is an excellent question. First, let’s review what the 14th amendment says:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [emphasis added]
An argument could be made that keeping adoption records, including the original birth certificate, sealed forever violates the 14th amendment because adoptees are a group of people who never have a say at the court hearing that seals those records. The records are sealed when the adoptee is a minor (frequently an infant), so the adoptee never has a voice in the process. Then, once the adoptee becomes an adult, he or she never has the opportunity to be heard on the issue in many states.
I do believe that adoptees have a strong argument if they can get this issue before the U.S. Supreme Court. So far, the Supreme Court has avoided addressing this issue directly. See this blog entry for links to other sites that support the assertion that denying adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates violates the 14th amendment.
This blog is written by multiple people and expresses our opinions and thoughts about a specific situation. We include adoptive and birth family members.
Our sense of humor led us to select this user name. Dear Adoption Maharishi can be abbreviated as DAM. We are being a little punny. Dam can be defined as a female parent and we are all female.
Do you have a question for the Adoption Maharishi? Please email your question to advice@ouradopt.com.
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Tags: 14th amendment, Adoptee rights, Adoptees, Adoption advocacy, adoption birth certificates, adoption laws, DAM, Dear Adoption Maharishi, denying adoptees access to birth certificates, Equal Protection Clause, Fourteenth Amendment, original birth certificate, sealing original birth certificate
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My comments have been deleted!
John can you read this? this blog was in 2009
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Its the words that come before the ones you emphasized that are applicable, '...without due process of law...'. Due process is what courts do, it is also what the legislative and administrative branches of government do. An adoption law legally proposed, evaluated and enacted is due process.
Felons may never be able to vote after conviction, yet there is no 14th amendment issue, due process was followed. The indiviual felon did not get a court hearing on his particular right to vote, it was dictated by the legislature, and that was due process. Indeed all members of that group, felons, are treated equally.