Tuesday, August 09, 2005

US Supreme Court: Irish Adoption Angle

We wondered when the Irish family background of Dubya's Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and his wife Jane Sullivan Roberts would become an issue. First came the harmless news that they have a house in Limerick, via Mrs Roberts' family (link to Alive in Limerick blog). And as we argued on the night he was nominated, it's a background that plays well with America's Pundit, Tim Russert. But now, via Is that Legal? comes news of the strange paper trail underlying the adoption of their two kids. The children are both Irish born, but the adoption was structured through an unspecified Latin American country (Colombia? -- could it be that the touring Shinners were adoption facilitators?).

Anyway, as a commenter on the Is That Legal? post points out, the explanation is probably a simple one that domicile was established in some country where the procedures are easier than for an Irish adoption or the bringing of the kids direct to the US prior to adoption -- much as Cuban defector baseball players always seem to wind up in a country not covered by the baseball draft rules, and so can enter the league as free agents. At least one weird irony then: that Irish regulations bring occasionally dodgy financial transactions to Dublin, but send adoptions of Irish kids elsewhere. And indeed, sends adoption-seeking Irish parents overseas.

It's clear that Mr and Mrs Roberts decided they wanted to adopt Irish children. Revelations about how exactly such a desire was implemented have the potential to generate the first really ugly episode of his nomination, both in the Republic and the USA.

UPDATE: Atrios comments. And here are the rules governing adoption of Irish-born children in Ireland. [26 June 2006] An oblique reference to the kids being adopted, but not the background, in USA Today.

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