Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
This is the story of a three-year-old girl and the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a legal battle that has entangled a biological father, a heart-broken couple, and the tragic history of Native American children taken from their families.
- Duration
- 43m
- Broadcast on
- 30 May 2013
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
This is the story of a three-year-old girl and the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a legal battle that has entangled a biological father, a heart-broken couple, and the tragic history of Native American children taken from their families.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Oh, wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC and NPR. Hey, I'm Jad Abumran. I'm Robert Krillwick. This is Radio Lab, the podcast. And today on the podcast, we are going to venture into new territory for us. We have the story of a little girl who became a very, very big deal. How big a deal did this little girl become? A very big deal to about 500-something nations. There aren't 500 in there. No, there are. Look, I've seen the front of the UN. No, there are. Just look, okay. It's going to make sense in about 30 seconds. Okay. That's a tease. It isn't ultimately even that important to the story. So just you and I are going to sit right here and behave ourselves. And Tim Howard, our intrepid producer, is going to tell us the story. So I first heard about this story. I saw it listed on the Supreme Court docket for cases that they were going to be hearing this spring. Well, the name of the case is Baby Girl versus Adoptive Couple. Actually, in strict legal parlance, it's called Adoptive Couple V Baby Girl. So it's not a particularly catchy name. I got to say, it's a weird name, though. It's hard to picture. Yeah. So this is Marsha Zug. Associate Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina. And she wrote about this case in Slate, and it stood out to me because, you know, it just seemed odd at first that this would even be a Supreme Court case. It seemed more like a straightforward custody case. Right. But when you dig in... Yeah, there's a lot going on here. Who say it? Text messages. State laws. Errors. Children. Supreme Court. Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus. And it is not straightforward at all. Apparently not. So let me walk you through it the way that I learned about it. The story begins with a couple. Matt and Melanie Capobianco. They are a couple who live down here in South Carolina.
Transcription truncated.
This is the story of a three-year-old girl and the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a legal battle that has entangled a biological father, a heart-broken couple, and the tragic history of Native American children taken from their families.