Bugg Stories vol. 4

in tennessee adoption records have been opened and then closed again three times in recent months as courts try to rule on a new law passed last year the law was passed in response to efforts by adoptees who argue that they should have the right to see their birth records critics of the law insisted invades the privacy of birth parents other states are watching the fate of the tennessee law closely and eat a bug of member station wpln in nashville reports february nineteenth is a day tracy pack will never forget at eleven that morning she said in a small office at the tennessee department of children's services and opened her once sealed adoption record with hands shaking in tears falling she read through the eighty or so pages i finally feel a sense of closure in a piece about the home does the whole and arson received a sense of completeness made it and now i have the full story you know i have a perspective from when i was born i had that

missing term from the time i was born until i was placed in i have a history back is one of more than eleven hundred tennessee adoptees who filed for access tennessee sealed its records in nineteen fifty one but a law passed last year change that by granting access to adoptees at age twenty one four months adoptees have watched as opposed to the law used legal challenges to keep the records closed larry crane represents to birth mothers an adoptive couple and an adoption agency who are challenging the law it is whether or not these these plaintiffs should be forced now to expose themselves and their families to the embarrassment and ridicule an end problems that will naturally result if on this secret in their lives is now made public tennessee lawmakers will lead they saw that issue by including a contact the dough in the law the provision allows birth parents to

reject any contact from the adoptee so far the courts agree with lawmakers the sixth circuit court of appeals call the law a serious attempt to weigh in balance two conflicting interest and therefore rejected arguments by those challenging the law and ordered the case dismissed that's when tracy pick and three others got to see the records that as quickly as the records opened they were closed as the appeals court granted a stay stopping the law and the nine adoptees access for yet a third time this day allows attorney larry crane to take his appeal to the us supreme court all we are asking isn't is a bare minimum of due process while must there be only a contact ito what could there be an information the tow as well the problem with having an information veto if the experience that adoptees have head over to your attorney bob to quiz a member of the commission which recommended changes in tennessee's adoption law adoptees have had no success for obtaining information

using the process that mr krane has suggested in the past that's within the whole event we didn't work the kurdistan the law's in effect until april first that's when the challengers must convince the appeals court to extend it again a stay from the supreme court as much as she's happy to have seen a records tracy pack is disappointed for those denied access sitting on a back porch in smyrna tenn says she hopes the legal battle will ensue the reality is there are two sides to this story and neither side is wrong you know in syria neither side is wrong and i do feel like that this law is a good compromise between as two sides and i'm very excited and i hope that more copies of fortune of dictators hope because it stopped for that for now adoptees this way to allow the challenge to work its way through the legal system even if the supreme court rejects a review the case

attorneys say they will file challenges in the state court system to keep the records closed more than twenty state legislatures have requested copies of tennessee's adoption measure those lawmakers are also waiting for a legal resolution for proposing changes to their adoption laws for national public radio i'm anita bike in nashville four tapes and transcripts of all things considered to call toll free eight a date npr news for program listings visit our website at w