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Louisiana Pages

The following is a message written by Kenny Tucker who has been working hard to get an open records bill in Louisiana.

Senate Bill 30 --- Murdered by Amendment . . . .

Hi, Fellow Advocates,
Kenny Tucker, here, of Louisiana Adoption Advocates, updating you on what transpired today at the Louisiana State Capitol when Senate Bill 30 (restoring the rights of Louisiana adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates) came up for hearing (w/ opposition to be present) in the Senate's Judiciary A Committee.

In a nutshell, an amendment was passed to our bill that killed our "civil rights" claims, thus leading to the withdrawal of our support for the amended version.

The opposition featured roughly SIX speakers, all running the gamut of the arguments we're all too familiar with: (1) invasion of privacy concerns, (2) there's already a registry in place, (3) agencies often help out with disclosure for medical crises, (4) bill shouldn't be retroactive, 'cause it betrays past promises, (5) this bill might lead birthmothers to pursue other options -- abortion, etc.

When, they finally finished, one of the Senators remarked something about a meeting they were already late for (!!!!). Here comes time pressure. So, I began my rebuttal, all set to debate the opposition's concerns, and began to mention how the 13 people seated behind me wearing green ribbons in support of SB 30 were the people who actually have utilized our state's adoption system . . . .THEN IT HAPPENED.

One of the state senators interrupted me, and said, "before you continue, I'd like to offer an amendment", and his amendment made the bill Prospective in nature (from this point forward) rather than retroactive (benefitting ALL adult adoptees in the state). I then asked to address that issue in particular before the vote, then went into a pre-prepared statement on retroactivity and how civil rights bills are NEVER prospective in nature, and I gave voting rights examples: women gaining the right in 1920, African-Americans in 1964, and 18-year-olds in 1971 . . all were retroactive in nature instead of prospective.

The senator looked like I'd "reached" him, and he said he understood what we were saying but that there's open and closed adoptions, and the closed adoptions have to be protected. He asked for a vote on the amendment, and it passed unanimously, despite our objections.

As I went to continue the rebuttal, I suddenly realized that our group was no longer defending a civil rights bill . . . this bill now resembled something completely different entirely (it was as if you're buying a brand new PT Cruiser, and when you go to drive it home, it turns into a Yugo). I mentioned something about temporarily being at a loss because the bill no longer addressed adoptees' civil rights. When I asked the committee for clarification on the bill (as some of our group members weren't sure what had happened -- the amendment vote had gone by that fast), they confirmed that Senate Bill 30, as it now stood, was prospective in nature, based on the "prospective" amendment.

After an awkward moment or two with my co-chair, Christy Little, and I huddling, with an "informal" poll taken of our present members, I made the announcement to the committee that Louisiana Adoption Advocates cannot just compromise away the civil rights of adult adoptees in Louisiana, and that we were withdrawing our support for this bill. I believe I stated to the committee that civil rights for adult adoptees in this state HAVE to be retroactive (or else there no longer civil rights), and that having a prospective "compromise" bill become law virtually eliminates any chance of us EVER going back to the legislature for retroactive application ('cause then we'd be told, 'oh, we had a compromise back in 2001, and now you're not satisfied').

At that moment, the chairman turned to our co-sponsor and asked him what did he want to do regarding the bill. Our co-sponsor "deferred" our bill for consideration by this committee (which essentially means the bill will get "buried in the stack" and might see the light of day before the end of this year's session). However, without our support, there's not much opportunity for our senators to see the need to push hard for the bill (I'll explore our remaining options --- I kinda doubt the bill can be considered without the amendment that's already been ok'd by the committee -- but I'll double-check).

Believe me, advocates, Louisiana Adoption Advocates has compromising capabilities regarding SB 30, but "prospective vs. retroactive" wasn't one of them. Beyond this year, it looks like the next annual legislative session the legislature can hear a non-revenue bill is 2003.

In summary, advocates, our fight for civil rights for adult adoptees fell short today . . . as I said by the caption of this e-mail . . ."murder by amendment".

Legislative Links
• Louisiana Adoption Law
• Louisana Laws by Adoption Triad.

to the Louisiana Index Page.

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