Due Process Clause and Closed Adoptions
On the blog entry entitled Dear Adoption Maharishi: Do Adoption Laws Violate the 14th Amendment?, John posted the following comment:
Its the words that come before the ones you emphasized [the Equal Protection Clause] 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. ~ John
I have to respectfully disagree with John on this topic and will explain my reasons why. I welcome discussion by John and other readers on this issue. I hope that one day the U.S. Supreme Court will address these issues directly.
FaithA's blog | 
12 comments | 
Tags: 14th amendment, Adoptee rights, Adoptees, Adoption advocacy, adoption birth certificates, adoption laws, Closed adoption, closed adoptions, denying adoptees access to birth certificates, Due Process Clause, Equal Protection Clause, Fourteenth Amendment, original birth certificate, sealing original birth certificate
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
Adoption_Maharishi's blog | 5 comments | 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
Court Case Regarding 14th Amendment and Adoptee Access to Birth Records
In a prior post, I asked Do Current Adoption Laws Violate the 14th Amendment? A reader told me about a 1978 court case in which the petitioners argued this very question. After reading through the court case, I still believe that adoptees who are being denied access to their birth records, including their original birth certificates, have a valid claim.
The case the reader told me about is YESTERDAY'S CHILDREN v. KENNEDY, 569 F.2d 431 (1977), cert. denied, 437 U.S. 904, 98 S.Ct. 3090 (1978). In this case, adult adoptees who were placed for adoption as infants filed suit, arguing that an Illinois statute denying them access to their birth records violated the First, Fifth, Ninth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. They filed suit in federal court without first going through the Illinois State Court system.
The district judge punted the issue back to the state courts. The adoptees appealed to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, who sent the case back to the district judge, stating that…
a three-judge court was required to hear plaintiffs' constitutional challenge because the complaint "presented a substantial federal question."
Do Current Adoption Laws Violate the 14th Amendment?
Many adoption laws throughout the United States seal the original birth certificate as part of the adoption. Once the original birth certificate is sealed, it cannot not be “unsealed,” even after the adoptee becomes an adult. For example, here in North Carolina, an adult adoptee must petition the court and provide grounds for wanting access to the records, such as medical information that is not obtainable elsewhere. If an adult adoptee cannot convince a judge that access is “necessary for the protection of the adoptee or the public,” then an adult adoptee will be denied access to his own original birth certificate.
I can think of no other segment of the population that is categorically denied access to their own birth certificates even well into adulthood. I have to question whether these laws violate the Equal Protection Clause found in Section One of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which says…
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