Adoption Petition

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WI Court of Supreme Court

Case Name: A. M. B. v. Circuit Court for Ashland County

Case No.: 2022AP001334

Officials: Bradley, J.

Focus: Adoption Petition

In the case concerning the adoption of M.M.C. by A.M.B.’s nonmarital partner T.G., the Supreme Court of Wisconsin affirmed the circuit court’s decision to deny the adoption petition based on the ineligibility of T.G. under the current adoption statutes.

The Court’s rationale was grounded in the premise that the adoption statutes, as a creature of statute, are designed to reflect legislative policy choices concerning who can adopt. Since these statutes do not regulate a fundamental right or a protected class, their constitutionality hinges on whether they have a rational basis related to a legitimate state interest. The Court found such a basis in the legislative intent to promote stability for adoptive children through marital families. It was noted that the statutes aim to ensure that children are adopted into stable family units recognized legally through marriage, thereby promoting the child’s welfare and stability.

Justice Bradley pointed out that while marriage itself is a fundamental right, the ability to adopt is not; it is a privilege created by state law. The statutes’ exclusion of nonmarital partners from adopting does not compel marriage nor prevent it, hence it does not infringe upon the fundamental right to marry. Consequently, the state’s differentiation between marital and nonmarital partners in adoption scenarios was deemed to have a rational basis, namely, the promotion of stable family environments for adopted children. This decision reaffirms the state’s policy of supporting the traditional marital family structure in the context of adoption.

Affirmed

Decided 04/30/24

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