Global Courant
The Michigan Supreme Court on Monday broke ground in a parental rights dispute, saying a woman can gain custody of her partner’s child who was born before their same-sex relationship ended.
Carrie Pueblo has no biological connection to a boy who was born to Rachel Haas in 2008, but had helped raise him. Pueblo insists they would have been married at the time had same-sex marriage been legal in Michigan, a status that could have given her a formal role in the child’s life even if the marriage had ended.
Same-sex marriage was legalized in the US in 2015 after Pueblo and Haas split.
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“While the decision in this case is likely to affect few, it is nevertheless important to what it represents,” Judge Megan Cavanagh said in a 5-2 opinion.
“Justice does not depend on family composition; everyone who applies for recognition of their parental rights is entitled to equal treatment under the law,” Cavanagh wrote.
Michigan Supreme Court extends parental rights for same-sex partners who separate.
Pueblo and Haas had raised the boy together after their relationship ended. But by 2017, Pueblo said Haas demanded she stop having contact with the child.
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Pueblo can now return to a Kalamazoo County court and try to show that she and Haas, if possible, would have been married when the boy was born through in vitro fertilization.
If a judge agrees, Pueblo could be judged on “custody and parentage time,” the Supreme Court said.
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Haas’ lawyer had urged the Supreme Court in April to stay on the sidelines and let the legislature change the law if lawmakers believe it would be appropriate. Judge Brian Zahra, in his dissenting opinion, agreed with that view.
“I am not comfortable retrospectively recognizing a marriage-equivalent relationship. … Courts will have to examine all public and private aspects of a now-defunct relationship to presume whether the couple would have chosen to marry,” said Zahra, who was joined by Judge David Viviano.
