--- description: Temporarily blocking ruling that voids a woman's adoption of three kids with former partner title: Supreme Court Grants Stay in Lesbian Adoption Case image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LGBT](/tag/lgbt/) ## LGBT Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Supreme Court Grants Stay in Lesbian Adoption Case by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 14, 2015 5:45 PM CUT by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 14, 2015 5:45 PM CUT The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked an Alabama Supreme Court decision that ruled a lesbian woman’s adoption of three children with her partner was invalid. The Alabama court previously ruled not to recognize the adoption, which has prevented the woman from enjoying visitation rights with three children, ages 13, 11, and 11, she adopted and raised with her former partner. The woman, identified as V.L., adopted the children in Georgia in 2007, but was kept from seeing her children after breaking up with her partner. The two were not married. Her former partner, identified as E.L, has argued the adoption is not valid in Alabama. The Alabama Supreme Court found the adoption was “void” in their state. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the woman the emergency stay of that ruling, though [SCOTUSBlog](http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/12/temporary-win-for-lesbian-parent/ "undefined") reports the justices did not mention visitation in the ruling. The Supreme Court on Monday said the stay would be terminated if the court decides not to take up the case. The stay will remain in effect until a ruling if the justices do take the case. “I’m overjoyed that my children and I will be able to be together again,” said the woman, identified as V.L., in a statement. “It’s been so long—more time that I ever thought I could bear—since we have been able to be together and just do the everyday things that parents do with their children, like having dinner together and helping them with their homework.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4147911/lesbian-adoption-case-supreme-court/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4147911/lesbian-adoption-case-supreme-court/"},"headline":"Supreme Court Grants Stay in Lesbian Adoption Case","datePublished":"2015-12-14T17:45:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:21:12.443Z","description":"At least a temporary victory for a woman denied visitation rights","url":"https://time.com/4147911/lesbian-adoption-case-supreme-court/","keywords":["LGBT","Supreme Court","adoption"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/lgbt/","name":"LGBT"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4147911/lesbian-adoption-case-supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court Grants Stay in Lesbian Adoption Case"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This is The History of the Rainbow Flag","description":"How the rainbow flag became an icon of LGBT rights","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bnTiT5cr/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-24T22:02:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bnTiT5cr.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4147911/lesbian-adoption-case-supreme-court/","duration":"PT1M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4147911/lesbian-adoption-case-supreme-court/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```