>Date: Wed, 28 Aug 96 
>From: 74354.1311@compuserve.com
>To: jkelly@wimsey.com  
>Subject: NCFA enters fray in Tennessee
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Don't forget you can access all of the Tennessee documents on the AAC Web 
page, courtesy of Anne Babb.....   
http://pages.prodigy.com/adoptreform/tncomp.htm   Its amazing..all of the 
affidavits and amiecus(sp) briefs as well as Judge Nixon's 23 page 
decision...it's history making...don't miss it!
Another forwarded message via Jane Nast from Anne Babb...an article from a 
Nashville newspaper. 
NCFA ENTERS FRAY IN TENNESSEE
Please Distribute
National Council for Adoption Enters Tennessee Adoption Records Battle
National Group Fights Adoption Law
by Carrie Ferguson, Staff WriterThe Nashville Tennessean
NASHVILLE, August 28, 1996 -- A national adoption organization has joined in 
the lawsuit seeking to prevent adopted Tennesseans from gaining access to 
their records.
The National Council for Adoption, a critic of the newly enacted state law, 
says it worries that opening adoption records in Tennessee will lead other 
states to enact similar laws.
"The promoters have said they want to use this as their model to destroy 
privacy in Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states," said William 
Pierce, president of the Washington, D.C.-based research organization.
However, adoptees both locally and nationally have banded together in 
opposition to the secretive nature of adoption records. They say they have a 
right to files on their biological families.
Tennessee is the third state to open records.
Larry Crain, the attorney for those bringing the lawsuit here, said he held 
off filing an appeal yesterday of a federal court decision opening Tennessee 
adoption records because he wanted to let other organizations join in the 
suit.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge John T. Nixon decided Tennessee could 
implement its law, which had been slated to take effect July 1.
In June, Nixon had temporarily barred the state from opening adoption records 
until he could consider arguments against it.
Now Crain hopes Nixon will reconsider his decision and keep the state from 
handing out records to adults who were adopted as children and have asked for 
them. If Nixon declines, Crain said he will immediately appeal to the 6th 
Circuit Court of Appeals, and to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
Under the new legislation, which took two years to research, draft, and pass, 
an adoptee older than 21 may request his file from the state Department of 
Children's Services. The file contains identifying information such as the 
birth mother's name and medical history. Before the new law, an adoptee could 
look into his file only if the birth mother agreed or if a judge granted 
permission.
The new law contains a provision called a "contact veto" that gives the birth 
mother a chance to block contact with the adoptee. Should adoptees violate 
the request, they could face criminal charges.
Those challenging the law here -- two birth mothers, an adoptive couple,and 
an adoption agency -- do not believe the contact veto offers enough privacy 
protection.
In his ruling last week, Nixon said the greater public good required that the 
records be open.
The state has begun processing the more than 200 requests for information and 
should have the first files completed within three weeks a state spokeswoman 
said.
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