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A lesbian mother in Alabama is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a decision refusing recognition of her as an adoptive parent of three children.

The woman, who goes by the moniker A.L. before the court, filed a writ of certiorari petitioning the court for review in addition to a stay request on the Alabama Supreme Court decision denying her access to her children.

“I love my children more than anything,” V.L. said. “I haven’t had visitation with my kids since April, and there isn’t a moment that goes by that I don’t think about them and pray that we’ll be able to be together again soon. I just want to hold them and feel their arms around me. No parent and child should ever be separated because a court refuses to follow the law and recognize adoptions from other states.”

V.L. adopted the children in Georgia in 2007 when she was in a relationship with E.L., the child’s biological mother who allowed V.L. to do a second-parent adoption. The couple has now split and E.L. refuses to allow V.L. to see the children, arguing the Georgia adoption is invalid where they now live in Alabama.

On Sept. 18, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order refusing to recognize V.L.’s adoption in Georgia and declaring it void. The decision breaks from precedent requiring states to honor court judgments from other states.

As a result of an earlier Alabama order, V.L. has not had visitation with her children — ages 12, 10 and 10 — for nearly seven months, even though she has raised them since their birth.

The petition V.L. filed before the U.S. Supreme Court presents the question of whether the Full Faith & Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution permits a court to deny recognition to an adoption judgment previously issued by a court from another state based on the determination that judgment was in error.

V.L is represented by the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, Adam Unikowsky and Paul Smith of Jenner & Block as well as Alabama attorneys Heather Fann of Boyd, Fernambucq, Dunn & Fann, P.C., and Traci Vella of Vella & King.

“The Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” NCLR Family Law Director Cathy Sakimura in a statement. “The Constitution requires every state to give full faith and credit to adoptions granted by courts in other states, regardless of whether it agrees with another state’s adoption policy or thinks the adoption was wrongly granted. The Alabama Supreme Court had no legal ability to second-guess the Georgia court’s judgment.”