Local Judge Strikes Down Florida's Gay Adoption Ban

It's a circuit judge in Key West, so it doesn't have state-wide applicability, but a judge has just ruled that Florida's gay adoption ban violates the state constitution. The law had previously survived, incorrectly in my view, a federal constitutional challenge.

Judge David J. Audlin Jr. wrote in his ruling, which has not yet been formally published, that the Florida law forbidding gay people from adopting children is contrary to the state Constitution because it singles out a group for punishment.

"Contrary to every child welfare principle," Audlin wrote, "the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that ... it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual."

Since even the most rabid academic opponents of gay adoption concede that blanket bans are inadvisable, it is tough to criticize this ruling. Congratulations to (parts of) Florida, for this great step forward in the journey towards human equality.

Via Cogitamus.