Source: Richmond Times-Union, Northern Virginia Daily, Associated Press
Richmond, VA -- A Virginia Supreme Court ruling this morning means a Vermont child custody order in a failed civil union must be enforced here even though same-sex marriages are barred in Virginia, but the right-wing lawyers who lost today's case vowed to continue the legal fight.

The unusual, long-running case centers on 6-year-old Isabella, born to then Lisa Miller-Jenkins, after she was artificially inseminated. Miller-Jenkins had entered into a civil union in Vermont with Janet Miller-Jenkins in 2001.

The union broke up and Lisa, now Lisa Miller, returned to Virginia in 2003, became a born-again Christian, declared that she's no longer lesbian, and eventually obtained legal help from right-wing activist groups.

A Vermont court granted a dissolution of the union, gave Lisa Miller primary custody, and visitation rights to Janet Jenkins. That decision was upheld by the Vermont Supreme Court, but Miller won an order from a Virginia trial court granting her sole custody and denying Jenkins visitation.

The Virginia Court of Appeals twice ruled in favor of Jenkins, Associated Press reports. Miller's attorneys missed a deadline for appealing the first ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court, so they filed a second appeal on different grounds. The appellate court ruled that the second case raised no new issues, and the Supreme Court today agreed with that decision.

Because her lawyers missed that first filing deadline, the Virginia high court today refused to consider arguments presented to it by Miller's attorneys who hoped to convince the court that the Vermont civil union should not be recognized in Virginia.

The decision means that Miller must allow Jenkins visitation with Isabella.

"I'm relieved that this tug-of-war with my daughter is over," Jenkins said in a statement released by the gay-rights group Lambda Legal. "This has been a very long four years. My daughter and I need some time to be together. She needs her other mom."

But the right-wing activists who are helping Miller insist that the case is not over.

Miller's right-wing activist attorney, Mathew Staver, said his client "has not lost her courage or her resolve" and will pursue other legal options. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the law school at the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, said he hopes to raise the issue of Virginia's constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions in a new proceeding.

Jenkins' attorney, Joseph R. Price, is quoted by Associated Press, saying the decision "is fully consistent with Virginia, Vermont and federal law" on child custody and visitation matters.

But, according to reports, the court did deal with the merits of Miller's or Jenkins's arguments in today's decision. Northern Virginia Daily reports that the court ruled in its unanimous decision that Miller hadn't properly appealed the decision of the Virginia Court of Appeals, effectively barring the seven justices from considering her legal arguments.

Miller's supporters were encouraged a brief concurring opinion written by Virginia Chief Justice Leroy R. Hassell Jr., who said he disagreed with the appeals court's first decision but agreed the justices could not consider the merits because the appeal was filed late.

The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled in the initial case that a federal law aimed at preventing parents from shopping from state to state for the most favorable custody rulings required the Vermont order to be respected.

"I see that as a red flag practically begging the attorneys to go back and file again because the issues at question were not considered," said anti-gay activist Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues for the conservative Concerned Women for America. "It's a temporary setback, but it's not over."

In arguments that were not addressed by the Virginia court, lawyers for Miller argued that Virginia law doesn't allow courts to recognize the civil union or the visitation orders that arose from a Vermont court's dissolution of the union. But lawyers for Jenkins argued that the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act gave Vermont, not Virginia, jurisdiction over the matter.

Full article: Va. high court upholds civil union custody order | Richmond Times-Union
Virginia high court rules Vt. custody order must be honored | Northern Virginia Daily
Court: Vt. ruling stands in lesbian custody case | Associated Press