NEW JERSEY JUDGE DENIES ATHIEST COUPLE RIGHT TO ADOPT

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

TIME - After six years of childless marriage, John and Cynthia Burke of
Newark decided to adopt a baby boy through a state agency. Since the
Burkes were young, scandal-free and solvent, they had no trouble with
the New Jersey Bureau of Children's Services - until investigators came
to the line on the application that asked for the couple's religious
affiliation.

John Burke, an atheist, and his wife, a pantheist, had left the line
blank. As a result, the bureau denied the Burkes' application. After the
couple began court action, however, the bureau changed its regulations,
and the couple was able to adopt a baby boy from the Children's Aid and
Adoption Society in East Orange.

Last year the Burkes presented their adopted son, David, now 31, with a
baby sister, Eleanor Katherine, now 17 months, whom they acquired from
the same East Orange agency. Since the agency endorsed the adoption, the
required final approval by a judge was expected to be pro forma.
Instead, Superior Court Judge William Camarata raised the religious
issue.

In an extraordinary decision, Judge Camarata denied the Burkes' right to
the child because of their lack of belief in a Supreme Being. Despite
the Burkes' "high moral and ethical standards," he said, the New Jersey
state constitution declares that "no person shall be deprived of the
inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable
to the dictates of his own conscience." Despite Eleanor Katherine's
tender years, he continued, "the child should have the freedom to
worship as she sees fit, and not be influenced by prospective parents
who do not believe in a Supreme Being."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877155,00.html

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||