A father from Virginia is hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his case. He has petitioned the high court for a review. His case involves interstate child custody laws from the man's home state of Virginia and Utah, the state where his child resides. The man is not married to the child's mother and believes he was shut out by Utah when it agreed to allow his daughter to be adopted by another party.

When the adoption went through, the man alleges that Utah violated his rights as a father. The child was born on February 10, 2009. The next day the baby's birth mother signed a document to permit the Utah couple to adopt the child, waiving Virginia's laws. The baby's father didn't learn about her birth until February 11, 2009 -- after the documents were signed.

After attempts to recover his daughter failed, eight days after "Baby Emma" was born, the infant's father filed a custody action in Virginia. A Virginia judge later confirmed his parental rights, but the Utah courts disagreed. The judge in Utah stated that the young father was too late and could no longer protect his parental rights.

A federal law was put into place to prevent a situation like this from happening, but a ruling in Utah made against the father in July 2011 allegedly undermined that law. The law is known as the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA). Depending on how the law is interpreted, the man could potentially gain full custody of his infant daughter. The federal law has what is known as a "first in time" rule that is used in custody disputes, but the Utah courts state that that rule doesn't apply to adoption situations. The father asserts that PKPA applies to his case, since he filed a timely custody action in Virginia.

With adoptive parents in one state and an unmarried father in another, legal friction is likely to arise. According to the man and his attorney, this is one of the major reasons that the U.S. Supreme Court should address this case. A handful of similar cases have been heard in the higher courts of Utah since 2008. If the Supreme Court chooses to hear this father's case, it will be the first case that has involved a newborn infant.

It may take six months or more before the Supreme Court returns a decision on the review. Since the child involved in the case is now nearly 2-years-old, time is of the utmost importance in order for the father to be involved in the toddler's development.

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, "Virginia man asks U.S. high court to hear adoption case," Brooke Adams, Dec. 31, 2011