Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins

Lisa Miller (plaintiff) and Janet Miller-Jenkins (defendant) obtained a civil union in Vermont in 2000. They had a child through artificial insemination. Lisa and Janet chose a sperm donor, Lisa was the birth mother, and Janet was in the delivery room. Their child (IMJ) was born in 2002. The couple raised IMJ together for the first 17 months of the child’s life. Thereafter, Lisa and Janet separated, and IMJ lived with Lisa in Virginia while Janet remained in Vermont. Lisa filed a complaint in Vermont to dissolve the couple’s civil union. The Vermont family court awarded Lisa temporary legal and physical custody over IMJ and granted visitation rights to Janet. However, beginning in 2004, Lisa repeatedly violated the family court’s visitation orders and was held in contempt of court for doing so. In a final 2007 order, the family court ordered sole physical and legal custody of IMJ to Lisa, subject to Janet’s visitation rights. Subsequently, in 2009, Janet sought a modification of the custody order based on Lisa’s frequent interference with Janet’s visitation rights and the court’s having found Lisa in contempt of court a total of seven times. Lisa severely limited Janet’s contact with IMJ between 2008 and 2009, and Lisa also interfered in IMJ’s contact with Janet’s parents, who lived in Virginia. Based on specified factual findings, the family court awarded Janet sole physical and legal custody of IMJ. Lisa appealed, arguing that the transfer of custody to Janet violated her fundamental parental rights as the sole biological parent of IMJ.