Also known as: adopt · adopts · adopted · adopting · adoptions · adoptability · adoptee · adoptees · adoptive
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A statutory process creating a legal parent-child relationship by court order between persons who are not biologically related. The decree terminates the natural parents' rights and confers all parental rights and duties on the adoptive parents.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Alice Atkins files a petition in state court to adopt a child after the natural parents' rights are terminated. The court enters the decree. State officials then appoint electors under the constitutional process to select the President for a four-year term.
Aisha Ahmed seeks to adopt a child and tells the agency she accepts the home study report as accurate. When the opposing party later offers the report against her, the court treats her statement as adopted.
Anthony Arnold negotiates an adoption agreement with the agency before signing the final writing. At trial the court admits the earlier talks to determine whether the writing is integrated.
Austin Abbott petitions to adopt a child. The court adopts a state licensing regulation as the standard of conduct for the agency even though the regulation itself does not create a private right of action.
Adrian Aguilar, a county resident, files an adoption petition for a child whose natural parents consent. The court exercises jurisdiction because state law requires residency in the filing county.
Antonio Alvarado testifies in open court about the adoption proceeding. The court requires live testimony under the rule that witness statements must be taken in open court unless a statute provides otherwise.
Adoption is purely statutory and was not recognized at common law.
Consent is unnecessary if parental rights have already been terminated, the parent cannot be located, or the parent abandoned the child for the statutory period.
After the adoption decree is entered, consent cannot be withdrawn.
Most states require the petitioner to be a resident of the county where the petition is filed.
…been recognized by legislative provision and in judicial decisions. Congress, by a law passed at the first session after the adoption of the Constitution (the Judiciary Act), expressly gave the Supreme Court the power of issuing writs of mandamus. The words are: 'The supreme court shall also have appellate jurisdiction…