VA Supreme Court Upholds Rights of Non-Biological Parent

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June 10th, 2008

"Virgina Holds Up Vermont Civil Union"

A custody ruling made by a Vermont court in a civil union case should stand, the Virginia Supreme Court decided on Friday.

The ruling is a favorable one for Janet Jenkins, the non-biological parent of 5-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins. Isabella was born in 2002, two years after Jenkins and Lisa Miller entered into a civil union in Vermont. Miller gave birth to their daughter through artificial insemination.

In 2003, the women dissolved their union and Miller moved to Virginia, where she asked the courts to overturn a Vermont ruling that gave visitation to Jenkins. Both the Virginia Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court have upheld the Vermont ruling.

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