Adar v. Smith

Issue: (1) Whether a state violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause when an executive official selectively disregards some out-of-state judgments of adoption based on policy assessments of the wisdom of those judgments; (2) whether 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides a remedy for a violation of the Full Faith and Credit Clause; and (3) whether a state violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment when, based on its disapproval of the unmarried status of a child’s adoptive parents, the state refuses to issue the child with an accurate, amended birth certificate.

Briefs and Documents

Certiorari-stage documents

• Opinion below (5th Cir.)
• Petition for certiorari
• Brief amici curiae of Dean Erwin Chemerinsky et al.
• Brief amici curiae of Gary J. Gates, and Nan D. Hunter
• Brief amici curiae of Professors of Law
• Brief amici curiae of Support Center for Child Advocates, et al