Court won't review same-sex union custody case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a high-profile custody battle between two women over a child one had during their lesbian relationship, a case involving Vermont's precedent-setting law recognizing same-sex couples.

Vermont became the first state in the country to recognize same-sex couples' relationships in 2000, when it adopted a civil union law.

The justices rejected an appeal by the child's biological mother, who wants to deny visitation rights to her former lesbian partner. She appealed a Vermont Supreme Court ruling that the state's civil union law governs the custody dispute.

Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins were Virginia residents in 2000 when they went to Vermont to join in a civil union. In 2002, Miller was artificially inseminated and gave birth to a baby girl, Isabella. The couple then moved to Vermont.

About a year later, Miller filed for dissolution of the union. She moved back to Virginia with Isabella, said she no longer considered herself a lesbian and filed for full custody, even though she initially agreed to share custody with Jenkins.

Vermont courts have granted Jenkins temporary visitation rights and ruled that the couple were in a valid legal union at the time of the child's birth.

Virginia, which has a law opposing the recognition of same-sex unions, supported Miller's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. It said its state courts should not be required to recognize the child custody proceeding in Vermont.

But the nation's top court rejected Miller's appeal without any comment or recorded dissent.