Miami DCA Holds Gay Adoption Hearing
UM Law Students Attend

On August 26, a group of more than 25 international students from the University of Miami School of Law’s International Law LL.M. Program attended a Florida Third District Court of Appeal hearing on the landmark case that ruled the state’s 1977 ban on gay adoption unconstitutional.

	Students in the Law School’s Introduction to U.S. Law course pose with Jessica Carvalho Morris, director of the International Graduate Law Programs.

The students, who are pursuing LL.M. degrees with specializations in U.S. and Transnational Law for Foreign Lawyers and International Arbitration, attended the hearing as a part of an Introduction to US Law course.

“It was a great introduction to the American legal system,” said Jessica Carvalho Morris, who teaches the course and directs the Law School’s International Graduate Law Programs, which boast students from more than 20 countries including Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Germany, Romania, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba.

“Because Miami and Florida have become a center for major legal discussions, our students are exposed to an array of very interesting and challenging issues— from those leading up to Bush v. Gore to the trial of the son of the former president of Sierra Leone, USA v. Roy Belfast, which was the first prosecution of a foreign leader for torture, and now the [Martin] Gill case,” said Morris.

In a landmark ruling in 2008, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman, a 1979 alumna of the Law School, ruled the state’s 1977 ban on gay adoption unconstitutional. The decision allowed Miami resident Martin Gill and his partner to adopt two foster brothers whom he has raised since 2004. But the state’s appeal threatens the long-awaited adoption.

Morris says the controversial nature of the case will stimulate great class discussions.

“For many students, the fact that gay adoption is being discussed is unusual. So to attend a hearing that could change US law on the issue is extraordinary.”

During the hearing, arguments were presented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Gill, and the Florida Department of Children and Families before a panel of three judges that included Judge Gerald B. Cope, Jr., who taught as a visiting professor and the Distinguished Jurist in Resident at the Law School during the spring 2009 semester. Gill’s appellate attorney, Elliot H. Scherker, JD ’75, of Greenberg Traurig LLP, is an alumnus of UM Law. His trial lawyer, Hilarie Bass, JD ’81, Greenberg Traurig’s global operating shareholder, is as well.

“It was very interesting to see and hear the diversity of opinions among the judges on the gay issue,” said Aida Satylganova, a Muskie Fellow from Kyrgyzstan, a country in Central Asia where Satylganova said homosexuality remains a socially controversial issue and was previously a crime under the Kyrgyz Criminal Code.

“Such a hearing could not have taken a place in Kyrgyz Republic due to several reasons,” said Satylganova. “First, procedurally the courts of the Kyrgyz Republic are not authorized to overrule the law passed by our Parliament on the basis of its unfairness. Second, I'm not an expert on the minority rights in Kyrgyz Republic, but I believe that on the legislative level our country is not so conservative to gay people.”

“I would like to thank Professor Jessica Morris for taking her time and organizing this visit to the hearing. I personally enjoyed it and learned a lot,” Satylganova said.

Before coming to UM, Satylganova practiced law for six years with the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic and at a private law firm. She specialized in contracts and corporate issues.

At the press conference that followed the hearing, Satylganova and her classmates had the opportunity to watch Gill and members of both legal teams speak to the media.

Venezuelan-born graduate law student Grecia Sosa, who practiced for five years in the areas of civil litigation, corporate law, and aviation law at a firm in Venezuela, said she was amazed to see how open and public the hearing was. “I have been to a number of hearings and although they are supposed to be open to the public in my country this is in practice rarely the case with respect to members of the press and media,” she said, adding that in her home country the national constitution expressly forbids things like gay marriage and gay adoption even though certain controversial issues have been addressed there.

“One of the professors of my law school had a sex change operation and wanted to change his name to a female name rather than a male name. This case made it to the supreme court [The Supreme Tribunal of Justice] and several students and myself attended the hearing. Nevertheless, our professor lost the case. In Venezuela, name changes are not allowed on the basis of a sex change.”

Related Links

• International Graduate Law Programs at UM Law
• IGLP Director Jessica Carvalho Morris
• WSVN.com Video: Fla. gay adoption ban goes to appeals court

posted 16-September-2009

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