Utah Judge Oversteps His Boundaries

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Summary: A Utah judge stands alone after letting his personal beliefs on homosexuality interfere with the well-being of a foster child.

Welfare officials as well as a gay couple are stunned after a judge removed an infant foster child from their care. The same-sex couple was before the judge for a regular hearing when the judge cited research that children do better raised by heterosexual couples and gave that as a reason to remove the child.

  

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The couple, April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce, is one of over a dozen gay couples that were allowed to become foster parents after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. They have never had an issue before with the agency that deemed them to be unfit parents.

As one would assume, the case is now under review and is unlikely to stand. Utah’s Governor Gary Herbert is upset that a judge would let his personal feelings interfere with justice, “He may not like the law, but he should follow the law. We don’t want to have activism on the bench in any way, shape or form.”

The order from the judge called for the baby to be taken within the week and placed in another foster home. They have two other children, Pierce’s biological children, who are 12 and 14, that are living in the home as well. They had hoped to adopt the baby with the birth mother’s consent.

This is not the first time the judge has made a controversial ruling and nor will it be the last that any judge lets their personal feelings get in the way of the law.

Read about these other judges that often let their personal beliefs influence their rulings.

• Judge Takes Jury Selection into His Own Hands
• Passive-Aggressive Smackdown Begins between Oregon Judges Bailey and Upton

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/12/utah-governor-baffled-judge-baby-lesbian-foster-parents

Photo: fox13now.com