Supreme Court Avoids Gay Parental Rights

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court has once again avoided the contentious issue of parental rights--this time for gay and lesbian couples.

On Monday, the justices refused to get involved in a long-standing dispute between a former couple over custody of one of their two children.

At issue: whether an independent adoption in which the birth mother does not give up her parental rights is legislatively and constitutionally permissible.

The justices also declined to intervene in a Washington state dispute between a lesbian couple concerning ties to a child the two helped raise together last week.