Utah Supreme Court rules in Favor of Mother’s Effort to Protect Her Child

ADF, Mar 21, 2007

ADF-allied attorney successfully represents mom’s fight for the best interests of her child

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court today affirmed the parental rights of Cheryl Barlow, the mother of a 5-year-old child, granting Barlow's request to reverse a lower court decision that had granted parental standing to her former partner, a lesbian political activist.

“Protecting the well-being of a small child trumps the desire of a legal stranger to usurp the care and protection of that child’s mom,” said ADF Senior Counsel Joe Infranco.  “The Utah Supreme Court ruled correctly in affirming Cheryl Barlow’s right as a natural parent and putting an end to visitation with a woman who has no legitimate legal relationship to the child.”

“When the trial court granted visitation rights to a legal stranger in a non-marital relationship, they attempted to create a new ‘right’ that had not existed before,” Infranco explained.  “The creation of this new ‘right’ would not only have threatened the emotional well-being of this child, but potentially numerous others caught in a similar situation.”

ADF-allied attorney Frank Mylar of Mylar Law P.C. of Salt Lake City represented Barlow in all phases of the case.

In the opinion issued today, the court wrote, “…in carving out a permanent role in the child’s life for a surrogate parent, this court would necessarily subtract from the legal parent’s right to direct the upbringing of her child and expose the child to inevitable conflict between the surrogate and the natural parents.”

The full text of the Utah Supreme Court’s opinion in Jones v. Barlow can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/BarlowOpinion.pdf.

Barlow and Keri Jones, both Utah residents, entered into a civil union in Vermont five months after Barlow’s pregnancy by artificial insemination in 2001.  Civil unions are not valid in Utah.  In 2003, the relationship between Barlow and Jones ended, and Jones subsequently sued for parental rights to Barlow’s child.  In 2004, a lower court had ruled in favor of Jones and granted her visitation rights.  Barlow, who has resided in Texas for the past twenty months, appealed and the Utah Supreme Court agreed to hear the case (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3283).

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