JUDICIAL BRANCH Supreme Court refuses to hear Colo. adoption case

A mother who gave her child up changed her mind.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court refused today to consider whether a Colorado couple must return their adopted son to his Missouri birth mother.
Justices let stand a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in favor of the adoptive parents, who are identified in filings only as G.A.L. and K.L. to protect their privacy. The Denver couple argued they should retain custody of 1-year-old Alex because a judge had not taken into consideration his "best interests."
The birth mother, identified as C.M.C., disagreed, noting that a Missouri judge had ordered Alex returned after she changed her mind. The judge applied a looser legal standard than Colorado's in determining that the mother could keep the child because she was not unfit.
Crux of case
At issue in this case was whether the Colorado court overstepped its authority by refusing to give "full faith and credit" to Missouri's judgment as required by federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
In the Colorado case, the two parties agreed to the adoption in an April 2003 agreement filed in Missouri court. The terms allowed the 28-year-old birth mother, who lives outside St. Louis, to take Alex back as long as she changed her mind before the judge gave final approval to the adoption.
Subsequently, the Missouri court allowed the child to be placed with the adoptive parents but delayed final approval because the birth mother refused to identify the baby's father, as required by Missouri law.
After repeated delays, the mother revoked her consent and the court terminated the adoption in October 2003. The Colorado couple then filed suit in their home state, alleging that they still had rights to Alex after caring for him for six months, because Missouri did not apply the strict review of a child's "best interests."
Cockfighting supporters
The justices also turned down an appeal today from Oklahoma cockfighting supporters, who have lost at the ballot box and in courts.
In 2002, Oklahoma voters approved a ban on the blood sport, in which knives or cutting barbs are attached to roosters, which usually fight to the death.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld voters' decision earlier this year, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court. Justices rejected it without comment.