The Role Of Family Law In The United States

The traditional definition of family, especially in the United States, has made it rather difficult to recognize the legitimacy of families because of the complications of U.S. family law. For example, the U.S. uses marriage and biology to define the family. Under this concept, same sex couples with their children would not be considered a “family” nor would individuals who adopted children. Although problems still exists within the law, the federal courts have stepped up over the past several years and have rapidly expanded marital rights to same sex couples. One of the problems with family laws is that these laws are not universal and does not apply to everyone in the United States. One family state law might be drastically different than its counterpart.
It further gets complicated with second-parent adoption as this allows the “nonbiological parent to adopt the child or children of the biological mother without forcing the biological mother to give up her parenting rights.” (125) In states that permit this, this allows a gay/lesbian person to adopt a child as an individual while allowing his partner to receive legal parental