75 Am. U. L. Rev. 1667 (2026).

Abstract

Many state adoption laws restrict joint adoptions to married couples, thus excluding unmarried partners who share loving and committed relationships with the children they seek to adopt. These marital prerequisites reflect society’s outdated preference for the nuclear family while conflicting with adoption law’s commitment to the best interests of the child. Nonmarital families experience unequal legal protections based on marital status and geographic location. Building on the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision in G.G. v. Cabinet for Health & Family Services, this Comment examines the limits of resolving these disparities through statutory interpretation and identifies the constitutional questions that remain when state law expressly restricts joint adoption to married couples.

This Comment argues that marital prerequisites violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment by drawing on Supreme Court precedent protecting unmarried parents, nontraditional families, and parent-child relationships. This Comment further proposes a child‑centered framework that evaluates prospective parents according to their caregiving ability, stability, and the child’s needs rather than family marital status. It further urges courts and state legislatures to adopt clear and inclusive statutes permitting unmarried couples to jointly adopt their children.

* Senior Note & Comment Editor, American University Law Review, Volume 76; J.D. Candidate, May 2027, American University Washington College of Law; B.A., Psychology and Peace, War & Defense, 2019, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Many thanks to my Faculty Advisor, Professor Jamie Abrams, for her valuable guidance on this piece. I would also like to thank my Note & Comment Editor, Daphne Singer, for her feedback and encouragement, as well as my Final Editor, Kayla Schwein, and Senior Technical Editor, Elizabeth Mitchell, for their thoughtful edits and contributions to this piece. I am grateful to the entire staff of the American University Law Review for their work on this piece. Finally, I am especially thankful to my family for their love and support.